Trump tells soldiers Los Angeles protests are national security risk

US President Donald Trump used a speech honouring soldiers on Tuesday to defend his decision to deploy troops to Los Angeles in a confrontation over his immigration policy.

"Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness," Trump told soldiers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

"What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags," Trump said.

His visit to Fort Bragg, home to 50,000 active-duty soldiers, followed his move to deploy 700 marines and 4,000 national guard troops to LA in an escalating response to street protests over his immigration policies.

The Republican president said the military deployment was needed to protect federal property and personnel. California's Democratic-led government has said the move is an abuse of power and an unnecessary provocation.

"Not only are the service members defending the honest citizens of California, they're also defending our Republic itself," Trump said.

"They are heroes."

Street demonstrations in Southern California have been underway since Friday, when activists clashed with sheriff's deputies.

In North Carolina, Trump and defence secretary Pete Hegseth took part in long-scheduled commemorations of the US army's 250th anniversary, watching soldiers demonstrate a special forces assault on a building and use a long-range missile launcher.

It was the first in a series of celebrations of the army anniversary involving Trump ahead of a major parade in Washington on Saturday.

Earlier on Tuesday in the Oval Office, Trump warned against demonstrations at the parade, telling reporters: "They're going to be met with very big force."

The FBI and metropolitan police department have said there are no credible threats to the event.

The week's army commemorations combine Trump's penchant for patriotic pomp and his political positioning as a law and order president. Saturday's celebrations in Washington include thousands of troops, dozens of military aircraft and coincide with Trump's 79th birthday.

The army was established on June 14 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.

Earlier this year, Trump restored the name Fort Bragg to the base, one of the largest in the world, despite a federal law that prohibits honouring generals who fought for the South during the Civil War. His administration said the name honours a different Bragg — private first class Roland Bragg, who served during World War 2. In 2023, the base had been renamed Fort Liberty, a change driven by racial justice protests.

Trump has made the military a focus of his efforts, with his defence secretary working to purge transgender service members, top officials appointed under his Democratic predecessor and even books deemed out of step.

The president's cost-cutting government reforms have largely spared the defence department's nearly $1-trillion (R17.7-trillion) annual budget. He has pledged to avoid international conflict while launching new weapons programmes and increasing the use of the military domestically, including in immigration enforcement.

Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting the immigration and customs enforcement border agency a daily goal of arresting at least 3,000 migrants.

Demonstrators in LA have assembled, among other places, at a government facility where immigrants are detained.

Reuters