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Trump’s latest battle plays out on the streets of LA. The Home Depot raids. California sues. By Jonathan Pearlman.
Iran promises retaliation following deadly Israeli strikes
Israel launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leaders on Friday in a major attack that could lead to an all-out war between two of the region’s most powerful nations.
Explosions were reported across Iran early on Friday morning as Israel hit Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanz, a missile base in Khorramabad, and military leaders and nuclear scientists in Tehran, the capital. Iran’s state television said the strikes killed Hossein Salami, the commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards, a force that reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The chief of Iran’s military, Mohammad Bagheri, was also reportedly killed.
As Israeli authorities warned residents to prepare for massive retaliation that could involve ballistic missiles and drone strikes, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said its operation “will continue as long as needed” and was designed to prevent Iran from imminently developing nuclear weapons.
“If we don’t act now, we simply won’t be here,” he said in a televised statement.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel will face a “severe punishment” for the strikes.
“With this crime, the Zionist regime has set itself for a bitter and painful fate and it will definitely receive it,” he said
The strikes came despite President Donald Trump saying on Thursday that he did not want Israel to proceed with the attack.
In his first comments after the strike, Trump told Fox News: “We will defend Israel if necessary”.
Trump confirmed he had advance warning of the strike, but said the US was not involved and he wanted to proceed with negotiations with Tehran.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table,” he said. “We will see. There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back.”
Trump has been seeking a nuclear agreement with Iran, but indicated this week he was losing confidence that a deal would be reached. Further talks were due to be held on Sunday.
“As long as I think there is an agreement, I don’t want them [the Israelis] going in because I think that would blow it – might help it actually, but it also could blow it,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Air raid sirens sounded in Israel on Friday as authorities told residents to prepare for an imminent threat. Israel closed its airspace on Friday and Iran suspended flights to and from Tehran.
The strikes led to a 12.5 per cent rise in oil prices and prompted pleas from international leaders for calm.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was “alarmed” by the escalation, saying that the threat from Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program should be addressed through diplomacy.
“This risks further destabilising a region that is already volatile,” she said. “We call on all parties to refrain from actions and rhetoric that would further exacerbate tensions.”
Israel’s strike on Iran follows decades of tensions between the two regional rivals, which escalated following the October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023 by Hamas, an Iran-backed group, and Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza. Following the October 7 attacks, two Iran-backed groups – Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen – attacked Israel, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gazans.
In April 2024, Iran conducted its first direct attack on Israel, launching missiles and drones in response to the bombing of an Iranian embassy site in Syria. Israel responded with an attack on an anti-aircraft facility in Iran. In October that year, Iran launched a further missile attack on Israel in response to Israel’s assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general. Israel again responded with airstrikes on Iran’s air defences.
Israel has warned for years that it was considering a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. In 1981, Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. In 2007, Israel bombed a suspected nuclear site in Syria.
Hours before these strikes on Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared that Iran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations and that it had been prevented from verifying Tehran’s claim that its nuclear program was “exclusively peaceful”. Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it.
Israel’s strikes on Friday were far more extensive than attacks on nuclear facilities and included some aimed at weakening Iran’s military capability and leadership. The attacks reportedly involved hundreds of strikes conducted in at least five waves. Israel’s air force does not have heavy bombers that could destroy underground nuclear facilities, but has combat jets that can carry out repeated targeted strikes.
The Israeli attacks are not believed to have targeted Khamenei, but could weaken his hold on power. Most regional analysts said he was likely to respond quickly and fiercely.
Trump was due to hold a National Security Council meeting at 11.00am in Washington (4.00am Saturday, AEST). The US has previously helped to defend Israel from Iranian attacks.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that Israel’s attack was unilateral and warned Tehran not to target Americans.
“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self defence,” he said. “Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.”
Military takeover
Donald Trump deployed thousands of marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles this week to quell protests against deportations of migrants, defying the objections of California governor Gavin Newsom.
Threatening to arrest Newsom, Trump described the protesters this week as “insurrectionist mobs” and claimed that Los Angeles had been “invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals”.
Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, said the protests were successfully being handled by local police, accusing Trump of using the marines as “political pawns”. The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the deployment was provocative and unwarranted, adding: “This was a solution in search of a problem.”
Trump deployed the forces after protests erupted in response to a series of raids by federal immigration agents who rounded up suspected undocumented migrants. The initial protests last Friday and Saturday, mostly in downtown LA and the outer area of Paramount, involved a few hundred people and several violent clashes between police and protesters.
On Monday, as the marines and National Guard joined local law enforcement, the protests grew and spread across the city. Some demonstrators threw rocks at immigration officials and damaged vehicles and government buildings.
By Tuesday, with 700 marines and 4000 National Guard troops in LA, the protests had spread across the country, involving thousands of people in more than 20 cities. The protests were mostly calm but led to a few clashes with police. About 330 migrants and 160 protesters were arrested in LA from Friday to Wednesday.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Bass announced an 8pm to 6am curfew in downtown LA.
“It is extremely important to know that what is happening in this one square mile is not affecting the city,” she said. “Some of the imagery of the protests and the violence gives the appearance as though this is a citywide crisis, and it’s not.”
The Home Depot raids
In late May, Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and architect of Trump’s anti-migrant agenda, addressed officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over concerns they were failing to fulfil Trump’s election promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
According to an account of the meeting reported this week by The Wall Street Journal, Miller told the officials to not only target known or suspected unlawful immigrants but to also launch random raids. He suggested they target Home Depot, a chain of stores where day workers often gather to seek temporary hire by home owners and contractors who shop at the store. These workers have been in high demand as Los Angeles recovers from disastrous bushfires earlier this year that destroyed 16,000 buildings.
“Who here thinks they can do it?” Miller reportedly asked the officials.
Last Friday, ICE officials went to a Home Depot in Westlake, a predominantly Latino neighbourhood in LA, and handcuffed and detained several day workers in the car park.
A witness, speaking in Spanish, told NBC News: “My friend started yelling, ‘ICE, ICE.’ I thought he was joking but he wasn’t.”
On Saturday, ICE agents raided a Home Depot store in Paramount. On Monday morning, raids were conducted at stores in Whittier and Huntington Park in LA and then at other outlets across southern California.
Jorge Nicolás, from an organisation that supports day labourers, told the Los Angeles Times: “They’re not arresting international drug dealers. They’re arresting grandpas… people that are very humble and looking for an opportunity, just trying to get a decent living.”
On Wednesday, Miller wrote in a post on X: “America was invaded by illegal aliens. Americans voted to end the invasion. Democrat rioters are now waging violent insurrection to overturn the election result and continue the invasion.”
California sues
On Tuesday, California’s government sued the Trump administration, arguing that the deployment of the National Guard was unlawful and seeking a temporary restraining order to bar troops and marines from policing city streets.
Trump’s deployment of the National Guard marked the first time that a president had done so without the permission of the state’s governor since 1965, when Lyndon Johnson ordered the National Guard to protect civil rights protesters during a march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama. George Wallace, Alabama’s governor and a segregationist, had refused to guarantee the safety of the protesters.
Trump this week invoked a law that allows for a president to bypass a governor and use the National Guard to repel an invasion or suppress a rebellion. This may have influenced his and Miller’s rhetoric, including their references to the protesters as insurrectionists and invaders.
“This anarchy will not stand,” Trump said in an address to soldiers on Tuesday.
“We will not allow federal agents to be attacked, and we will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.”
Elizabeth Goitein, a legal expert, told The Washington Post that Trump’s order to deploy the troops was “completely unprecedented under any legal authority”. “The use of the military to quell civil unrest is supposed to be an absolute last resort,” she said.
A federal court was due to hold a hearing on Thursday afternoon to determine whether to issue a restraining order.
Governor Newsom said the deployment of the National Guard was a usurpation of authority that marked an “unmistakeable step toward authoritarianism”.
“The federal government is turning the military against American citizens,” he said on Instagram. “This is a manufactured crisis to allow [Trump] to take over a state militia, damaging the very foundation of our republic.”
A gift for Trump
Since his inauguration in January, Trump’s popularity has declined as he failed to fulfil his promise to boost incomes and end inflation. But he retains strong approval for his hardline approach to immigration. A CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last week found that 54 per cent of people – and 93 per cent of Republicans – supported his deportation policy and 46 per cent were opposed.
Trump’s military intervention in Los Angeles – even if it was not requested, warranted, or legal – gave him an opportunity to confront the governor of California, a Democratic stronghold, and to appeal to his MAGA support base. Though Californian authorities insisted the demonstrations were largely peaceful, they have produced striking images of burning vehicles and defiant protesters waving Mexican flags. Elon Musk, who has fallen out with Trump, this week published a series of posts on X in support of the military deployments.
An unnamed White House official told The Atlantic magazine this week: “We couldn’t have scripted this better. It’s like the 2024 election never ended: Trump is strong while Democrats are weak and defending the indefensible.”
On Saturday, Trump will oversee a military parade in Washington that will include thousands of troops marching through the streets, accompanied by tanks, artillery and flyovers. The US$45 million event marks the 250th anniversary of the US Army; it is also Trump’s 79th birthday.
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