“The definition of insurrection”: Miller says Newsom, Bass are encouraging violence in Los Angeles

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller insists that by urging the withdrawal of military forces in Los Angeles, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are stoking “violent insurrection.”

In response to Bass calling for a halt on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, Miller said that the California politicians were attempting “to control America’s entire immigration policy by fiat.” In an overheated rant posted to X, the Trump adviser said that Bass and Newsom sought the “nullification… of federal law, of national sovereignty, and of the bedrock constitutional command of one national government.”

“The Mayor of LA is effectively saying the mob violence is caused by the mere presence of ICE in the city, and the violence against ICE will not stop unless federal law enforcement is withdrawn from the city. This is the definition of insurrection,” he wrote. 

 Miller went on to call protestors “insurrectionists” and accused Newsom of encouraging violence. The governor’s office responded with a statement that said, “Stephen Miller has no peer when it comes to creating bulls**t, straw men arguments.”

Miller’s posts might provide insight into the White House’s thinking. While President Donald Trump hasn’t invoked the Insurrection Act, which grants the president wide leeway in using military forces within U.S. borders, he has deployed several battalions of troops to Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office he was open to the idea.

“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” he said. 

It’s been 60 years since a president invoked the Insurrection Act without a state’s request, when President Lyndon B. Johnson deployed Alabama’s National Guard in 1965 to protect civil rights demonstrators marching from Selma to Montgomery. 

Invoking the Insurrection Act would allow Trump to authorize military personnel to perform the duties of domestic law enforcement. The administration mobilized hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles on Monday to join up with the National Guard personnel it deployed on Saturday. Newsom has repeatedly condemned the action and unsuccessfully sought a temporary restraining order limiting the scope of military actions in the city.