Los Angeles, progressive beacon at center of anti-Trump backlash

LOS ANGELES: Protests in Los Angeles against raids on suspected undocumented immigrants have turned into the strongest domestic backlash against President Donald Trump since he took office in January.

Here is how the Democratic-leaning city and state of California vary from Trump’s Republicans and his support in the US heartland.

Read more: Trump administration deploys Marines to Los Angeles, vows to intensify migrant raids

Nationwide, Trump won around 2.5 million more votes than his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the November presidential election but in Los Angeles, Harris won by a margin of roughly two to one.

Of the 50 US states, California backed Harris by the fifth largest margin.

California is also home to several top-level Democrats, including Harris herself, and long-time former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

Governor Gavin Newsom is a Democrat, as is the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Both have complained about Trump’s tactics this week.

The party raises millions in the state from wealthy donors and grassroots supporters, sometimes in a single day.

At 27.3 per cent, California has the highest foreign-born population of any US state, compared to 13.9 per cent of the total US population, according to a 2024 Census report.

Nearly half of Angelenos are Hispanic or Latino and some 35 per cent of the city’s total population is foreign-born, according to the American Community Survey, with many cultural and business ties to Mexico, which is only about a two-hour drive south.

Faced with persistently bad air quality, especially in cities with strong driving cultures such as Los Angeles, California has developed some of the strictest environmental regulations in the country, opposed by many Republicans.

A landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 in California is in the crosshairs of a battle between its Democratic leadership and the Republican-run federal government, also because many other states replicate California’s first-in-the-nation action.

In May, the Republican-run Senate in Washington voted to ban the plan and it is now awaiting Trump’s signature. He is expected to sign it this week, according to industry officials.

American movies and television are one of the most visible US exports, emanating from an LA-based industry that had been hailed by liberals for boosting diversity but criticised by some conservatives for creating films that include LGBT stories.

Read more: Trump blames ‘insurrectionists’ for Los Angeles unrest

In May, Trump suggested a tariff on movies produced in foreign countries to protect a domestic industry that he said was “dying a very fast death.”

But when China retaliated by saying it would curb American film imports, he prompted laughter at a cabinet meeting by a response that signaled his derision for Hollywood: “I think I’ve heard of worse things.”