Sen. Ron Johnson said Sunday he's supporting President Donald Trump's decision to send National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to the belligerence against federal immigration officers, as California's leaders won't step forward to protect them.
"We have the experience in Wisconsin where Gov. Tony Evers refused to call the National Guard, and he let Kenosha burn," the Wisconsin Republican told CNN's "State of the Union." "And then President Trump sent in the National Guard, and Kenosha stopped burning. So the reason you send in massive manpower is to prevent violence."
Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops, despite the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, after protesters and federal immigration authorities, wearing riot gear, clashed.
"What we're seeing in California is violent," Johnson said. "Unfortunately, you don't have leaders in California who are willing to prevent violence and protect federal law enforcement. This is all about protecting law enforcement as they go about their very difficult and very dangerous job."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, has tweeted about possibly sending Marines into Los Angeles, but Johnson said the National Guard should be able to handle the situation.
"That's what we did here in Wisconsin, Kenosha," he said. "Once they were deployed here, the violence ended."
However, he said it "would be nice" if Democrat politicians would quit "stirring up" matters and asking people to protest against lawful law enforcement actions.
Johnson, meanwhile, has remained one of the leading GOP holdouts on Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act and said Sunday that while Democrats "just spend money," it's harder to make cuts.
"I'm a big supporter of President Trump," said Johnson. "I'm a supporter of what's in the big, beautiful bill. My problem is, it's not going far enough. And if we just pass this, if it's a one and done, we will not be really addressing the major problem here in terms of massive growing deficits and debt."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.