In the summer of 2025, a rumor spread online that U.S. President Donald Trump deployed 2,700 U.S. Marine Corps troops to "stop" the Los Angeles immigration raid protests in June but sent zero Marines to Texas after deadly flash floods devastated the state in July.
Examples of the claim appeared on X, Threads, Facebook and Instagram, where each post contained variations of the following wording: "Never forget that Donald Trump sent 2,700 Marines to stop protesters in Los Angeles. But sent ZERO to Texas to help find 180+ missing people or recover the bodies of more than 100 dead. That's Donald Trump."
On June 10, the White House said in an emailed statement that Trump sent the troops to L.A. to "protect American citizens and restore law and order." In another emailed statement on July 14, an unidentified White House official said Trump "approved a
"The Trump Administration is leading a historic, first-of-its-kind approach to disaster funding: putting states first by providing upfront recovery support," the White House said about its response to the Texas floods.
LA Marine Corps deployment
Trump sent about 700 Marine Corps troops, not 2,700, to L.A., alongside an additional 4,000 California Army National Guard personnel, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The president sent them under the official purpose of "protecting federal property and personnel" and, later, law enforcement. On June 13, the Defense Department said the following about Marine deployment in a news release (emphasis and detail in parentheses ours):
Roughly 200 Marines will begin protecting federal property and personnel in Los Angeles today after relieving the California National Guard, which was mobilized amidst a breakout of civil unrest in the city, June 7, 2025, a senior military official said today.
Once the soldiers of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are relieved from protecting the Wilshire Federal Building in L.A.'s Westwood neighborhood by personnel from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, they will transition to protecting federal law enforcement officers in the area, said Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51.
Task Force 51 is the Army's command and control organization for the Title 10 forces supporting federal law enforcement in the greater Los Angeles area.
Sherman emphasized that the soldiers are not participating in law enforcement activities. Instead, they'll be focused on protecting federal law enforcement personnel.
"Right now, as of today, we have had no soldier or Marine detain anyone," Sherman said, adding that — in the course of their protection duties — the service members have only been observing federal law enforcement make arrests of agitators.
A total of 700 Marines have now joined approximately 2,000 Guard members and an additional 2,000 personnel assigned to the 49th Military Police Brigade (a California Army National Guard unit) in the city, bringing the total number of military service members providing support to approximately 4,700.
Whether Trump sent the Marines for defensive purposes or to break up the protests has been disputed. California Democratic officials also widely condemned the Trump administration's deployment of military force as an escalation they said inflamed tensions and sowed fear for political gain.
Federal response to Texas floods
Trump did not deploy any Marines to Texas after devastating flash floods swept through communities along the Guadalupe River in the area known as Hill Country. His administration did, however, send Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers alongside U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) units, according to emails from both the White House and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people. The robust, coordinated federal response has saved over 900+ lives," an unidentified White House official said in an emailed statement. "The U.S. Coast Guard alone rescued over 230 Americans."
The White House directed inquiries about the exact number of people deployed from the Coast Guard and CBP to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately return a request for that information.
However, the National Guard Association of the United States, a nonprofit advocacy organization for the Guard, said on July 8 that there were "about 230 Guard troops deployed to affected areas" in Texas and the Guard had rescued at least 525 victims from the floodwaters.
It is worth noting that Abbott, the Texas governor, deployed the Guard, not Trump. Typically,
Meanwhile, in California, Trump used a federal law allowing him to deploy the Guard if "there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." A court allowed Trump to retain control of the Guard after California filed a legal challenge over the lawfulness of the president's deployment.
In sum, Trump deployed 700 U.S. Marine Corps personnel to Los Angeles during immigration raid protests in June and none to Texas after destructive flash floods in July. He also sent 4,000 California National Guard troops to L.A., but under U.S. law, Abbott, not Trump, has the authority to deploy Texas National Guard troops during a natural disaster. Instead, Trump's administration deployed Coast Guard and CBP units, although it is unclear how many were deployed.