lesson

The overriding questions remains, though. How long will O’Neill have to improve Celtic?

His return, alongside assistant Shaun Maloney, has brought back a feelgood factor but that was only going to last so long.

The laughs had over O’Neill’s matchday fit have faded, while Celtic’s deep-rooted problems have returned in stark fashion.

Captain Callum McGregor was at the heart of the happiness on Sunday, scoring in the extra-time win, but he was quick to assure no-one had got carried away.

“Nothing’s been solved after a really good game at the weekend,” the midfielder said after defeat in Denmark. “We know that we don’t get too up or too down.

“We come away here against a really good side, a good club, who do a lot of good things and they know what they are.

“There’s a lot of growth still left in our team as well. We know where we are and we know where we want to get to.”

It appears Celtic are far from the latter, and it’s lined up to be an almighty task to get them there, for whoever is charged with taking them there.

On a sobering night, it’s not the interim manager who will take the heat. It’s not even the players being taught by him.

It’s the board who have managed to quieten the clamour aimed in their direction for a few days with the reinstatement of O’Neill who will be feeling the pressure once more.

Bellamy was on something of a charm offensive when he faced the media before this fixture. There was to be a new and bigger English audience to see what the Welsh public had already witnessed: his evolution from a combustible, confrontational player to a controlled, deep-thinking coach.

This was the sternest examination so far of that new image.

He simmered on the Wembley touchline as he watched his team fold obligingly in the face of torrential English pressure.

Bellamy kept his cool on the surface but did he manage such calm in the changing room too?

“I quite enjoyed half-time,” he said.

“I was like, ‘now we see’. What are we going to do?

“When those moments happen, it shows who you are as a coach. You can come in balling and throwing stuff, but to who? It makes no sense. Me, I’m calm.

“This is a moment we need to relish. It’s not gone well for us, [so] how are we going to do something about it? Now we see who we are. I like those moments.”

Bellamy is clear about how he wants his team to play – pressing high, attacking whenever possible – but acknowledged that, on occasions like this against superior opposition, that will not always be possible.

“I look at England, their physical profile, the speed, the duels. Of course, it helps when you’ve got a lot of players playing in the Champions League, but that’s where you want our players to be,” he said.

“[For] the players, it’s ‘this is where we want to be’. But we also know, we have to be at the top of our game to be able to play against these types of nations.

“On Monday we have to be at the top of our game.”

Is there a better inkblot test for America right now than reaction to Bad Bunny being the halftime act for Super Bowl LX?

Soon after his name was announced, social media exploded into meritocracy debates as if the National Football League’s decisions are culturally motivated and not commercially. Taylor Swift is the most streamed artist in Spotify history. Bad Bunny is No. 2. For a domestic sports league trying to grow its popularity globally, the rationale seems clear.

And yet because he is a Puerto Rican who sings in Spanish, conservative talking heads must project outrage and offer listeners nonsensical objections.

“It’s so shameful they’ve decided to pick somebody who seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime show,” Corey Lewandowski, a longtime confidant of President Trump who currently advises the Department of Homeland Security, told conservative podcast host Benny Johnson. “We should be trying to be inclusive, not exclusive. There are plenty of great bands and entertainment people who could be playing at that show that would be bringing people together and not separating them.”

Suggesting Bad Bunny hates America is an interesting take given Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917. The three-time Grammy winner also has four No. 1 albums on the very American Billboard pop charts and has already performed during halftime at the Super Bowl back in 2020 with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. The Federal Communications Commission received more than 1,300 complaints about the show that year with the vast majority being from parents complaining about the stripper pole and twerking of the women, not Bad Bunny’s alleged hate of America.

I don’t know if Lewandowski and Johnson knew any of that before they started talking, but I get the feeling it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Once Lewandowski suggested ICE was going to be at the Super Bowl — an event that had an average resale ticket price of $8,600 in 2024 — it was clear their conversation wasn’t about solving the immigration problem.

It was clear they didn’t know much about the history of halftime acts either.

In 2006, a Super Bowl held in the heart of Detroit — the birthplace of Motown — rolled out the Rolling Stones, who are from London. In 2010, a Super Bowl in Miami — home of salsa and Afro-Cuban jazz — gave us the Who … who are also from England. In 2002, months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U2 — a band from Dublin, Ireland — did the show. There is a decades-long precedent for non-Americans to headline the Super Bowl. Though, again, quick geography lesson: Puerto Rico is part of the United States and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.

Detractors like Lewandowski and Johnson want to make English being Bad Bunny’s second language an indictment of his patriotism, as if growing up speaking English is a criterion for citizenship. It isn’t and never has been. Perhaps instead of using their platform to stir fear at a time when calm is needed, the two could see next February’s show as an opportunity to grow. Because honestly, it is so counterproductive to allow influential voices to gaslight the country into forgetting the milestones it’s already crossed. “La Bamba” by Los Lobos was sung in Spanish and hit No. 1 nearly 40 years ago. The only English in the K-pop hit “Gangnam Style” is “hey, sexy lady,” and that song made PSY an international sensation.

Instead of making people fear Spanish at the Super Bowl, maybe encourage them to spend this NFL season learning something beyond “gracias.“ Because in this world, there are people who choose to speak in English and there are people who have no other choice. Only one of those scenarios feels like freedom to me.

That was the topic of discussion in the summer of 2008 after then-Sen. Barack Obama said this at a campaign stop in Georgia: “Understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual.”

At the time many conservatives — such as Tucker Carlson and Lou Dobbs — used those comments not as a prompt to debate the merits of Obama’s remarks regarding U.S. education but as a weapon to attack him. They accused him of being divisive — when years ago Nelson Mandela said when you talk to someone “in his own language, that goes to his heart.” In fact, Dobbs said “instead of diversity, he’s talking about factionalism.” Nonsense that sounds a lot like the echoes we hear from Lewandowski and Johnson today.

It’s not just a question of if our children should be bilingual; it’s also about being curious about the world we live in. This NFL season has already featured games in Ireland and Brazil. Mexico City is an annual event. The league is in it for the bag. And eventually there will be a team based overseas where Spanish is heard, visiting teams carry passports and Bad Bunny is no stranger.

YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow

Stephen Low, 48, was celebrating the end of his first year teaching English in South Korea when he decided to go on a hike near the North-South border – but he got more than he bargained for

A British man found himself at the business end of a South Korean guard’s gun during an innocent hike.

Stephen Low had just finished his first year teaching English at a school near the infamous DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea. He had no idea then that his language teaching abilities were ultimately what would rescue him when facing the barrel of a gun.

The now 48-year-old decided to walk down a well-known trail near the North-South border. There, sniper posts and echoes of conflict provided a spine-chilling reminder of the hostilities across the divide.

Stephen knew the area was no place to mess around. In fact, one of his friends found themselves in hot water after they hopped on a military bus by mistake and “ended up in the military side of the DMZ.”

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“I just went hiking up to a hiking trail,” Stephen said.

As he approached the peak, the temperature dropped dramatically, and so Stephen sought refuge in one of the shelters scattered around the mountainside. He warmed himself by igniting a small fire, using a copy of the vampire fantasy novel Twilight as tinder.

Unfortunately, much like the romance in the Stephenie Meyer book, the fire burned too hot.

“As the fire burned, lots of thick smoke began wafting out from the hut. Suddenly, I heard shouting and as I emerged coughing and spluttering from the smoke-filled sniper hole, a ton of soldiers came down the mountain; they must have thought they were under attack,” Stephen continued.

Happily the teacher managed to slip away from the fire and the approaching soldiers, only to come face-to-face with a beekeeper, surrounded by bees.

“The bees swarmed me and got inside my clothing. I basically tore everything off to avoid being stung and ended up in just my boots, beanie, and boxers, which just so happened to be Union Jack boxers. That beekeeper must have thought I looked crazy…patriotic, but crazy,” he continued.

The misadventure wasn’t to end there however. Stephen rushed back towards the town where he was staying, only to stumble into a soldier. Despite Stephen’s best efforts to explain in Korean that he was simply lost, the guard remained deeply suspicious.

And as he stared at the guard’s M16 machine gun with its grenade launcher attachment, Stephen realized he needed to be far more persuasive. In a desperate bid to prove his innocence, Stephen called a former Korean student of his, who was now serving as the personal doctor to the South Korean president.

Handing the phone to the guard, Stephen pleaded, “Hangook chingu, Hangook chingu!”, translating to “Korean friend, Korean friend!”.

Despite initial fears that the guard was trigger-happy, he took the call instead. The ex-student managed to convince the soldier to escort Stephen safely through the base.

Stephen recounted, “It was hard to believe the guard actually thought I was a spy. But it’s exactly what my friend later told me the guard was accusing me of being. Back then, South Koreans were very wary of North Korean espionage; you even had options on your mobile emergency list for reporting spies!”.

“The guard was prepared for a North Korean around the corner, not a semi-naked hiker from the UK. South Korean guards have emergency numbers on speed dial that let them report a spy.”

While having a gun waved in your face is an experience best avoided if possible, the whole escapade has taught Stephen a valuable lesson.

“The lesson learnt is don’t set fire to things in public places,” he concluded.

The news seemed routine.

The ramifications could be resounding.

Late last month, LeBron James exercised his $52.6 million player option with the Lakers for next season. It was an expected transaction that, at first weary glance, appeared to be no big deal.

Of course he would take the guaranteed money, more than anyone else in the league besides Brooklyn could give him.

Of course he would stay in Los Angeles, where son Bronny sits on the bench and his home sits on a hill and his myriad businesses are sitting pretty.

Of course, of course, of course … but …

Bronny James (9) leaves the court ahead of father LeBron after a win over Minnesota, during which they became the first father and son to play together in the NBA on Oct. 20, 2024.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Wait a minute. There was a catch.

For the first time since James arrived here seven years ago, there was no second or third or fourth year attached to his contract.

The Lakers didn’t offer him an extension. They refused to guarantee him a spot here after next spring.

For the first time in his Laker career — actually, the first time in his entire 23-year career — James will thus play this season on an expiring contract.

In NBA speak, that means two words.

Trade bait.

Except James has a no-trade clause, and it’s unimaginable he would agree to go to another team that would have to gut their roster to match his salary.

So for the first time, the wiley, elusive, flexible LeBron James is stuck.

He’s stuck on a team clearly catering to the needs of a different superstar in Luka Doncic.

He’s stuck on a team that might be viewing his contract not as an asset but an albatross.

He’s stuck on a team that might be looking to get rid of him but can’t.

He’s stuck on a team where he said he wants to end his career, but where that ending might eventually be out of his control.

He could perhaps free himself by thinking about Nov. 29, 2015.

That is the date that Kobe Bryant, a month into his 20th season, officially announced his retirement.

You remember it, right? What happened next was the most surprisingly delightful farewell season-long tour in the history of sports.

“I thought everybody hated me,” Bryant said at the time. “It’s really cool, man.”

Hate him? America loved him, and showed him that love in every NBA arena across the country, standing ovations from coast to coast as he cruised his way toward that stunning 60-point career finale.

The Lakers were generally terrible, the hobbled Bryant was mostly awful, but the nights were wholly magical, the stone-faced bad guy opening himself up to a national respect and admiration that he never knew existed. It was important that he saw this before he retired. It became infinitely more important that he saw this before he died.

LeBron James flexes for the crowd during a game against the Hornets.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

At the end of the tour I wrote, “… a final act that, in typical Kobe Bryant fashion, was unlike any other in the history of American sports. Opening up to a world he never trusted, becoming accessible and embraceable after years of stony intensity, Bryant used the last five months to flip the narrative on his life and career, erasing the darkness of a villain and crystallizing the glow of a hero.”

Bryant had said before the season that he would never do a farewell tour, that he didn’t want to be lauded like baseball fans lauded the prolonged retirement journey of the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter.

“We’re completely different people; I couldn’t do that,” he said.

Yet saddled with an expiring contract just like James, Bryant ultimately wanted to do something that James might consider, giving the organization a head start at rebuilding while controlling his own narrative.

Before Bryant’s decision could be leaked, he announced it himself in an open letter to basketball that was so touching it became an Oscar-winning film. He even arranged for a copy of the letter, sealed in an envelope embossed with gold, to be placed on the seat of every fan attending that night’s game at then-Staples Center against the Indiana Pacers.

Not exactly a T-shirt, huh? It was elegant, it was classy, it was perfect, just like the tour, initially criticized in this space as being selfish before your humbled correspondent finally realized that Bryant was right, it was really, really cool.

“It’s fun. I’ve been enjoying it,” Bryant said. “It’s been great to kind of go from city to city and say thank you to all the fans and be able to feel that in return.”

You hear that, LeBron?

This is not a call for James to retire, but a call for James to begin considering how that will happen, and how the classy Lakers would nail it if it happened here.

Lakers star LeBron James battles three-time MVP Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets for rebounding position during a playoff game in Denver.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Granted, the James and Bryant situations are not comparable. Even though James is 40, and Bryant was 37, James is still one of the league’s best players while Bryant was statistically one of its worst. And while James is still physically powerful, Bryant never fully recovered from his torn Achilles and was battered and broken.

James might have more gas in the tank while Bryant was clearly done.

But James himself has indicated that he probably has, at most, two years left. And every season his injuries become more insistent and debilitating.

And now that the Lakers are under new ownership with no ties to James, and now that current management has already given this team to Doncic, James doesn’t have much of a future here.

He has made noise about going back to Cleveland, and maybe after this season he’ll want to return to where his career started.

But if he’s even thinking about retirement after this year — a legitimate option for the first time — he shouldn’t wait to do so while walking off the court following an early-round loss by a mediocre Laker team.

Nobody does retirement tours like the Lakers. And nobody has ever done one like Kobe Bryant.

Decidedly in the twilight of his career, LeBron James can learn from both.

TAHOE CITY — Today I offer boating tips for Lake Tahoe — actually, for any body of water.

That’s not one of my usual column topics. Normally I write about California government and politics.

But this time I’m writing about boating because I’ve been wincing after reading and watching news reports of the horrific accident on Tahoe that killed eight people June 21.

Moreover, the Fourth of July means we’re in the heart of boating season. There are 4 million recreational boaters in California, according to the state Division of Boating and Waterways. There’s an average of 514 boating accidents a year. And July is the worst month.

I’ve been boating at Tahoe for 55 years, and on some water since I was a teen.

These are my basic rules for safety and enjoyment, at least in a vessel up to about 30 feet. My Tahoe boats mostly have been 22 to 24 feet.

For starters, if Lake Tahoe winds are already blowing at 10 mph and it’s not even noon, be smart. Don’t venture out in a recreational powerboat. The water’s likely to get much choppier in the afternoon.

If you’re out there and see white caps forming, head for shore.

If lots of sailboats show up, you don’t belong on the water with them. Get off.

And another thing: Don’t pay much attention to the manufacturer’s claim of how many people a boat will hold. Boat makers tend to exaggerate. If it says 10 people will fit, figure on maybe eight tops.

Sure, 10 may be able to squeeze aboard, but the extra weight causes the boat to ride deeper in the water and become more vulnerable to taking on water in heavy swells. That can lead to capsizing. And all those passengers squirming around makes driving more difficult because of the constantly changing weight balance.

But most important: Monitor the weather forecasts before you even get near the water.

Lake Tahoe is big and beautiful — 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, at 6,224 feet in the Sierra mountains. It holds enough water to cover all of California by 14 inches. Two-thirds of the lake is in California, one-third in Nevada.

Weather patterns vary. Scary winds and thunderstorms can be at one end of the lake, and calmer water and blue skies at the other.

Even on calm mornings, Lake Tahoe’s weather and boating conditions can turn hazardous quickly.

(Max Whittaker / For The Times)

My wincing at reports of the multi-fatality accident and many other boating mishaps that Saturday afternoon off the south and west shores stem from repeated references to all of it being caused by a sudden, unexpected storm.

The intensity of the storm may have been unexpected — north winds up to 45 mph, producing eight-foot waves. But winds had been forecast by the National Weather Service in the high teens and into the 20s. And that should have been enough warning for boaters: Stay off the water.

The person who made the most sense after the tragedy was Mary Laub, a retired financial analyst who lives in Minden, Nev., over the steep hill from South Lake Tahoe. She and her husband keep a 26-foot Regal cabin cruiser in Tahoe Keys on the south shore. And she habitually watches weather forecasts.

She had planned to go for a cruise that Saturday but dropped the idea after seeing the forecast.

“The afternoon winds pick up at Tahoe. If they’re approaching 10 [mph] before noon, I don’t go out,” she told me. “I saw that forecast and said, ‘No way.’

“If there’s any whisper of wind, I don’t go out. We’ve been caught out there before. I don’t take a chance.”

The people who died were in a practically new 27-foot Chris-Craft Launch, a high-end, gorgeous open-bow boat. It was the vessel’s third time on the water. Ten people were aboard, mostly in their 60s and 70s. They were relatives and lifelong friends, celebrating a woman’s 71st birthday. She was among the fatalities.

They were trying to return from popular Emerald Bay to their west side home in midafternoon when eight-foot swells swamped the boat, deadening the engine and capsizing the vessel off rocky Rubicon Point near D.L. Bliss State Park. They were tossed into the abnormally cold water and presumably drowned, perhaps paralyzed by hypothermia.

A mother and daughter in the party, both wearing life jackets, were rescued by a Washoe County sheriff’s team. Whether the others were wearing life jackets hadn’t been revealed as of this writing.

Meanwhile, boats all along the southwest shore were being swamped or ripped from their moorings and piling up on rocks or beaches, often crashing into other vessels.

One four-person crew in a 24-foot open-bow MasterCraft grabbed their life jackets, wisely abandoned the boat and swam to shore. They scampered up rocky cliffs in their bare feet to safety. The boat was practically totaled.

I called meteorologist Dawn Johnson at the National Weather Service in Reno.

She said the forecast for that Saturday afternoon had been for winds up to 20 mph and gusts to “25 or so.”

There also was up to a 25% chance of thunderstorms. “If you have thunderstorms on the lake, make sure you get off the water,” Johnson said. “You have a higher risk of being struck by lightning on open water.”

There were strong winds Friday night, she recalled, but by 11 a.m. Saturday they had dropped to 5 to 10 mph. Then they picked up as forecast.

“We see winds gust at that magnitude multiple times a month, most likely in the afternoon,” she said. “Sustained winds reach 25 to 30 mph.”

But normally they produce waves of only 2 to 4 feet, she added. “We’re trying to figure out exactly what happened.”

Four-foot waves are a hurricane in my book.

And Mother Nature doesn’t care about a boater’s weekend plans.

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents have a right to opt their schoolchildren out of classes and lessons that offend their religious beliefs.

The 6-3 ruling will have an impact nationwide because it empowers parents who object to books or lessons at school.

“A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses a very real threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” said Justice Samuel A. Alito, speaking for the conservative majority.

Parents in Montgomery County, Md., sued over new LGBTQ+ storybooks that were used in kindergarten and elementary school classes.

This clash between progressive educators and religiously conservative parents moved quickly to the Supreme Court after judges refused to intervene.

Alito said the parents were entitled to a preliminary injunction that would require the schools to “notify them in advance” when one of the disputed storybooks would be used in their child’s class.

In ruling for the parents, the court did not say parents have a right to change the lessons and books that were used at school. They could, however, choose to have their children temporarily removed from those classes.

The court’s three liberals dissented.

“Today’s ruling ushers in … new reality, “ Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. “Casting aside long-standing precedent, the Court invents a constitutional right to avoid exposure to subtle themes contrary to the religious principles that parents wish to instill in their children. Given the great diversity of religious beliefs in this country, countless interactions that occur every day in public schools might expose children to messages that conflict with a parent’s religious beliefs. The result will be chaos for this Nation’s public schools.”

Eric Baxter, senior counsel at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the decision “a historic victory for parental rights in Maryland and across America. Kids shouldn’t be forced into conversations about drag queens, Pride parades, or gender transitions without their parents’ permission.”

He appealed the case to the Supreme Court last fall.

“Today, the Court restored common sense and made clear that parents — not government —have the final say in how their children are raised,” he said.

Civil rights advocates condemned the ruling.

“All students deserve to feel safe and welcome in their classrooms. Educators should prepare them for the world we live in and promote curiosity, acceptance, and respect for all people. Yet today’s decision by six justices encourages open discrimination toward LGBTQ+ children and families and favors ignorance and censorship over inclusion,” said Liz King, director for education equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Nearly every state, including Maryland and California, has a law that allows parents to opt out their children from sex education classes.

But Montgomery County officials said this state rule applied to older students and to sex education, but not to reading lessons for elementary school children.

When the new LGBTQ+ storybooks were introduced in the fall of 2022, parents were told their young children could be removed from those lessons. But when “unsustainably high numbers” of children were absent, the school board revoked the opt-out rule.

In reaction, a group of Muslim, Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents filed a suit in federal court, seeking an order that would allow their children to be removed from class during the reading lessons.

A federal judge and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to intervene.

Those judges said the “free exercise” of religion under the 1st Amendment protects people from being forced to change their conduct or their beliefs but it does not shield people from views they oppose.

Lawyers for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty appealed to the Supreme Court.

They said the school board had “mandated new ‘inclusive’ storybooks that celebrate gender transitions, explore Pride parades and introduce same-sex romance between young children.”

At first, parents had been promised they would be notified and could opt their children out when the storybooks were read, they said. But that promise was revoked.

“If parents did not like what was taught to their elementary school kids, their only choice was to send them to private school or to home school,” they said.

WASHINGTON — When racial justice protests roiled cities across America at the depths of the pandemic, President Trump, then in his first term, demonstrated restraint. Threats to invoke the Insurrection Act and to federalize the National Guard never materialized.

This time, it took less than 24 hours of isolated protests in Los Angeles County before Trump, more aggressive than ever in his use of executive power, to issue a historic order. “The federal government will step in and solve the problem,” he said on social media Saturday night, issuing executive action not seen since civil unrest gripped the nation in the 1960s.

It was the latest expression of a president unleashed from conventional parameters on his power, unconcerned with states’ rights or the proportionality of his actions. And the targeting of a Democratic city in a Democratic state was, according to the vice president, an intentional ploy to make a political lesson out of Los Angeles.

The pace of the escalation, and the federal government’s unwillingness to defer to cooperative local law enforcement authorities, raise questions about the administration’s intentions as it responds to protesters. The administration skipped several steps in an established ladder of response options, such as enhancing U.S. Marshals Service and Federal Protective Service personnel to protect federal prisons and property, before asking the state whether a National Guard deployment might be warranted.

Local officials were clear that they did not want, or need, federal assistance. And they are concerned that Trump’s heavy-handed response risks escalating what was a series of isolated, heated clashes consisting of a few hundred people into a larger law enforcement challenge that could roil the city.

The president’s historic deployment prompted fury among local Democratic officials who warned of an infringement on states’ rights. Trump’s takeover of the California National Guard, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, was prompted “not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle.”

“Don’t give them one,” he said.

Vice President JD Vance, calling the anti-ICE protesters “insurrectionists,” welcomed the political pushback, stating on X that “one half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil.”

Protests against ICE agents on Friday and Saturday were limited in scale and location. Several dozen people protested the flash raids on Friday afternoon outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, with some clashing with agents and vandalizing the building. The LAPD authorized so-called less-lethal munitions against a small group of “violent protesters” after concrete was thrown at an officer. The protest disbursed by midnight.

On Saturday, outside a Home Depot, demonstrators chanted “ICE go home” and “No justice, no peace.” Some protesters yelled at deputies, and a series of flash-bang grenades was deployed.

“What are you doing!” one man screamed out.

Times reporters witnessed federal agents lobbing multiple rounds of flash-bangs and pepper balls at protesters.

Despite the limited scale of the violence, by Saturday evening, the Trump administration embraced the visuals of a city in chaos compelling federal enforcement of law and order.

“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday night. “These criminals will be arrested and swiftly brought to justice. The commander-in-chief will ensure the laws of the United States are executed fully and completely.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a statement Saturday, said the administration is prepared to go further, deploying active-duty U.S. Marines to the nation’s second-largest city. “This is deranged behavior,” responded California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

Trump’s decision Saturday to call in the National Guard, using a rarely used authority called Title 10, has no clear historic precedent. President Lyndon Johnson cited Title 10 in 1965 to protect civil rights marchers during protests in Selma, Ala., but did so out of concern that local law enforcement would decline to do so themselves.

By contrast, this weekend, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said it was fully cooperating with federal law enforcement. “We are planning for long-term civil unrest and collaborating with our law enforcement partners,” the department said in a statement.

The 2,000 Guardsmen called up for duty is double the number that were assigned by local authorities to respond to much wider protests that erupted throughout Los Angeles in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.

Tom Homan, the president’s so-called border czar, told Fox News on Saturday evening that the administration was “already ahead of the game” in its planning for a National Guard deployment.

“This is about enforcing the law, and again, we’re not going to apologize for doing it,” he said. “We’re stepping up.”

National Guard troops began arriving in Los Angeles on Sunday morning, deploying around federal buildings in L.A. County.

“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs,” Trump wrote on Truth, his social media platform, “then the federal government will step in and solve the problem.”