LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Pentagon ordered the U.S. Marines to leave Los Angeles on Monday, more than a month after President Donald Trump deployed them to the city against the objections of local leaders.
The 700 Marines were deployed June 9 on the fourth day of protests in downtown LA over the administration’s crackdown on immigration. Four thousand National Guard soldiers were also deployed.
Their presence in the city had been limited to two locations with federal buildings in Los Angeles, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and detention facility downtown. During their deployment outside a federal complex in west LA, the Marines temporarily detained a man who said he was rushing to get to a Veterans Affairs appointment.
The decision to pull back the Marines comes after half of the National Guard troops were ordered to leave the city last week. The rest remain.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the military presence “sent a clear message: lawlessness will not be tolerated.”
Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference Monday morning ahead of the announcement with several leaders of veteran groups who raised concerns about the deployment of military troops on domestic soil. They called for the remainder of troops to be withdrawn from Los Angeles.
“This is another win for Los Angeles but this is also a win for those serving this country in uniform,” Bass said in a statement. “Los Angeles stands with our troops, which is why we are glad they are leaving.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the federal government in June over the deployment of the National Guard, arguing that Trump violated the law when he activated the troops without notifying him. Newsom also asked the judge for an emergency stop to troops helping carry out immigration raids.
While a lower court ordered Trump to return control of the Guard to California, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month temporarily blocked the judge's order.
Newsom originally included the Marines in the lawsuit, but the case has primarily focused on the Guard since.
In response to the Pentagon's announcement pulling back the Marines, Newsom reiterated his call for the remaining Guard troops to be sent home as well.
“The women and men of the California National Guard deserve more than to continue serving as puppets in Trump and Stephen Miller’s performative political theater," Newsom said in a statement. “There was never a need for the military to deploy against civilians in Los Angeles."
Local authorities have disputed the Trump administration’s characterization of the city as a “war zone.”
The protests in Los Angeles have been largely limited to a few blocks downtown containing City Hall, federal buildings and an immigration detention facility. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have been largely small impromptu protests around arrests.
In one of the most raucous days of protest, thousands of people took to the streets June 8 in response to Trump’s deployment of the Guard, blocking off a major freeway as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire.
A day later, police officers used flash bangs and shot projectiles as they pushed protesters through Little Tokyo, where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way.
Bass set a curfew in place for about a week that she said had successfully protected businesses and helped restore order.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators from opposite parties are joining forces in a renewed push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort that has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida on Thursday plan to introduce legislation, first shared with The Associated Press, that would bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks.
It's the latest in a flurry of proposals in the House and the Senate to limit stock trading in Congress, lending bipartisan momentum to the issue. But the sheer number of proposals has clouded the path forward. Republican leaders in the House are pushing their own bill on stock ownership, an alternative that critics have dismissed as watered down.
“There’s an American consensus around this, not a partisan consensus, that members of Congress and, frankly, senior members of administrations and the White House, shouldn’t be making money off the backs of the American people,” Gillibrand said in an interview with the AP on Wednesday.
Trading of stock by members of Congress has been the subject of ethics scrutiny and criminal investigations in recent years, with lawmakers accused of using the information they gain as part of their jobs — often not known to the public — to buy and sell stocks at significant profit. Both parties have pledged to stop stock trading in Washington in campaign ads, creating unusual alliances in Congress.
The bill being introduced by Gillibrand and Moody is a version of a House bill introduced last year by Reps. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, and Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from Rhode Island. That proposal, which has 125 cosponsors, would ban members of Congress from buying or selling individual stocks altogether.
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida tried to bypass party leadership and force a vote on the bill. Her push with a discharge petition has 79 of the 218 signatures required, the majority of them Democrats.
House Republican leaders are supporting an alternative bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from buying individual stocks but would not require lawmakers to divest from stocks they already own. It would mandate public notice seven days before a lawmaker sells a stock. The bill advanced in committee Wednesday — which Luna called “a win” — but its prospects are unclear.
Magaziner and other House Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, wrote in a joint statement Wednesday that they “are disappointed that the bill introduced by Republican leadership today fails to deliver the reform that is needed.”
The Senate bill from Gillibrand and Moody would give lawmakers 180 days to divest their individual stock holdings after the bill takes effect, while newly elected members would have 90 days from being sworn in to divest. Lawmakers would be prohibited from trading and owning certain other financial assets, including securities, commodities and futures.
“The American people must be able to trust that their elected officials are focused on results for the American people and not focused on profiting from their positions,” Moody wrote in response to a list of questions from the AP.
The legislation would exempt the president and vice president, a carveout likely to draw criticism from some Democrats. Similar objections were raised last year over a bill that barred members of Congress from issuing certain cryptocurrencies but did not apply to the president.
Gillibrand said the president “should be held to the same standard” but described the legislation as “a good place to start.”
“I don’t think we have to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” Gillibrand said. “There’s a lot more I would love to put in this bill, but this is a consensus from a bipartisan basis and a consensus between two bodies of Congress.”
Moody, responding to written questions, wrote that Congress has the “constitutional power of the purse” so it's important that its members don't have “any other interests in mind, financial or otherwise.”
“Addressing Members of Congress is the number one priority our constituents are concerned with,” she wrote.
It remains to be seen if the bill will reach a vote in the Senate. A similar bill introduced by Gillibrand and GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri in 2023 never advanced out of committee.
Still, the issue has salience on the campaign trail. Moody is seeking election to her first full term in Florida this year after being appointed to her seat when Marco Rubio became secretary of state. Gillibrand chairs the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.
“The time has come," Gillibrand said. “We have consensus, and there’s a drumbeat of people who want to get this done.”
FILE -Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., speaks during the confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's choice to be director of the FBI, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
FILE - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., leaves the Senate chamber after voting on a government funding bill at the Capitol in Washington, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
