Late-Night Hosts Push Back at Trump's 'Totalitarian Hellscape' Image of LA: 'There's No Riot'

The host of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! led the late-night attacks on the military response to the ongoing protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration's ICE raids last week that targeted businesses, parking lots and, yes, fruit stands.

Kimmel countered the political narrative of Los Angeles with live footage outside his studio, and photos of the vast majority of the city carrying on like normal -- because the protests have been mostly concentrated in a small downtown area of the sprawling metropolis.

He started his monologue on Tuesday by noting that his Hollywood studio audience was full, as usual, adding that this detail "might be surprising for those of you in other parts of the country who've been watching cable news and believe this city is some kind of totalitarian hellscape right now."

"It most certainly is not," he added, showing the live footage of tourists and locals walking the peaceful streets, and even noting that the latest Disney-Pixar movie, Elio, was having its premiere. "Don't tell Trump," he said about the film, noting it's about aliens. "He'll send the Green Berets in, too."

Over on The Daily Show, host Desi Lydic also pushed back against the narrative about Los Angeles, noting that "most of the protesters have come with more of a chill, SoCal vibe: dancing, playing music, and unleashing these devastating projectiles at police."

Said projectiles, as shown in dramatic video footage, were bubbles. It is worth noting, as Stephen Colbert did on The Late Show, that some protestors threw real projectiles at police officers during the protests.

But was what was happening worthy of a National Guard and Marine presence? In the case of the National Guard, that would be a decision made at the governor's desk, with Gavin Newsom saying he did not request their presence.

"The United States invades the United States," Lydic said, before dropping a theory. "I'm beginning to wonder if Trump is intentionally trying to escalate this situation," she mused, "because more chaos allows him to portray blue states as centers of crime, while positioning himself as a strong man that the company needs to rally around."

After a beat, she shook her head, "No, that's silly. I'm sure he's just doing what's best for everyone."

But Colbert pointed out Stephen Miller's reported order to ICE agents that they stop focusing on just immigrants with criminal records and go to places like Home Depot parking lots and 7-Elevens. In his drive for ICE to ramp up their arrest numbers, he told officials to "just go out there and arrest illegal aliens," according to The Wall Street Journal.

"Following Stephen Miller's orders, ICE went to Los Angeles and started just rounding up people at workplaces, which of course led to protests that the mayor described as '100 people. 27 people were arrested,'" Colbert said Tuesday night.

Those protests triggered a big response from Trump, with Colbert quipping, "Well, no surprise there, Trump's just getting revenge on Tinseltown. He never won an Emmy for The Apprentice and he was snubbed in the 1993 Oscars for his performance in Home Alone 2."

Kimmel admitted that he was "very angry" about the whole thing. "I knew it was going to be bad. I did not know it was going to be this bad," he said.

"People who have lived here their whole lives, people who've been in this city longer than I have, the vast majority of whom have never done anything wrong, are being abducted, which is the correct word to use, by agents in masks hiding their identities, grabbing people off the street and at work, sending people to detention centers," he continued.

The late-night host said that as Americans are choosing to protest these actions -- "which is not only our right as Americans, it's our responsibility" -- Trump is responding with military force.

"He actually wants conflict. He is intentionally inflaming and lying to make it seem like there's a war going on here," Kimmel argued. "He wants there to be a war going on here and he doesn't care who gets hurt in it."

The late-night comic went on to reiterate, "There's no riot outside. We have more so-called unrest here when one of our teams wins a championship."

"But that's not what you're seeing on TV. Someone sets a fire in a garbage can, 12 camera crews go running toward it," he argued. "Trump wants it to seem like anarchy."

He then marveled at this immediate federal response, considering, "when we had the wildfires that devastated big chunks of our city, he did absolutely nothing. Now that we're in the middle of a non-emergency, send in the national guard!"

"Putting out a fire you purposely start doesn't make you a firefighter, it makes you an arsonist with a hose, okay?"

Offering a basic summary of the situation, as he sees it, Kimmel said, "Donald Trump created this problem. He's putting the police and military in danger. He's the one deporting children and their parents without any process. He's the one who has ICE agents outside immigration offices arresting the people who showed up to do the right thing and check in with the immigration office."

"This is not a problem we had, this is a problem he made and is intentionally doing everything he can to make it worse. He is purposefully pitting Americans against each other to create protest porn for [the media]," he continued.

He also accused Trump of orchestrating this crisis as a distraction. "Everyone was talking about Trump on the Epstein list and fighting with Elon, so what did he do?" Kimmel asked. "He manufactured a crisis. He got back to what got him here in the first place, good old xenophobia."

"We don't know how this is going to end, but at least we know it's going to be a huge waste of money," said Lydic over on The Daily Show. "Uh, hello, DOGE. I found some cuts for you? Can you put your mom on the phone. Teenagers, jeezus!"