Sending Troops to LA Will Cost $134M

Defense chief Pete Hegseth's testimony before a House panel on Tuesday yielded a tangible nugget about the Los Angeles protests: The cost of deploying Marines and the National Guard to keep them under control for two months is $134 million, reports Politico. President Trump has ordered 4,000 members of the Guard to Los Angeles, as well as 700 Marines, and lawmakers grilled Hegseth on the costs. He eventually turned to acting comptroller Bryn McDonnell for the breakdown, per the AP. Travel, housing, and food make up the bulk of the costs.

Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, criticized the decision to send the troops to LA, calling it "premature" and "downright escalatory," per the New York Times. But Hegseth countered that "we ought to be able to enforce immigration law in this country." (More Los Angeles protests stories.)