LA Protests and Riots Largely Unpopular, Polls Find

Over the weekend, riots and protests erupted in Los Angeles, with viral footage showing rioters smashing the windshields of ICE and police vehicles and setting fire to self-driving Waymo cars. The unrest has since spread to other major cities, with additional demonstrations planned for June 14, the day of Trump’s scheduled military parade in Washington, D.C. However, recent polling suggests the protests and riots are largely unpopular with the public.

One poll from YouGov asked the question directly. The poll, conducted on Monday with 4,231 U.S. adults, found that only 36% approved of the recent protests in Los Angeles against ICE’s actions, while 45% disapproved, and 19% said they were unsure.

One of the main controversies around the riots has been Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to aid the local police in quelling the riots. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has spoken out adamantly against these deployments, writing on X, “U.S. Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy. They are heroes. They shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”

However, Americans largely agree with the move by Trump. In an InsiderAdvantage poll taken June 9-10, 59% said they agreed with Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard and federal military to downtown Los Angeles. This included 89% of Republicans, 56% of independents, and 37% of Democrats.

Recognizing the unpopularity of the riots, Republicans say they will be leaning into the videos and images over the next year going into the midterms. Jesse Hun, a strategist and former communications director at the National Republican Senatorial Campaign, said that these riots paint “a real picture of which side voters can choose to be on, public servants enforcing U.S. law in an American city or a violent mob waving another country’s flag,” RealClearPolitics reported.

A poll commissioned by the Congressional Leadership Fund, conducted by Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio in key congressional districts, also found general agreement with Trump’s move to hire 40,000 additional ICE agents, as well as increasing funding for law enforcement to fight drug cartels.

Democrats are also trying to build their own narrative around the protests and riots. A poll conducted by Democrat-leaning groups Way to Win and Impact Research found that while Republicans have a 23-point lead on immigration (43% approval vs. 19% for Democrats), certain messaging can drive down their strength on the issue. In the survey, pollsters asked about Trump’s approval on immigration, then presented examples of arrests, such as “a 10-year-old U.S. citizen … deported because their parents are undocumented,” and then asked for Trump’s approval again. They found that his approval on immigration dropped by 5 points after hearing such examples, from 50% to 45%.

These polls indicate that while Republicans will focus on Trump’s broadly popular deportation policy, as well as the unpopularity of the rioters, Democrats will highlight specific cases to frame the immigration argument.