Newsom has said the troops were unnecessary and has filed an emergency motion to stop the Trump Administration from sending the troops. At least 150 protesters have been arrested since Saturday NZT, officials said.
Among the creators at the protests was Cam Higby, 25, a journalist and political commentator for the conservative digital outlet Today Is America. He flew to Los Angeles from his home in Washington state last Friday after seeing videos of the demonstrations on X.
On Monday night local time, he livestreamed from the front lines of the protests alongside another online creator and friend, Aldo Buttazoni, 25.
Higby and Buttazoni previously worked for the conservative media outlet Prager U and brand themselves as “America First”.
Much of their content comes in the form of rebuttals to Democratic officials like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or Newsom.
Higby’s posts, which have amassed millions of views in recent days, blur the line between reporting and advocacy.
He sometimes posts video updates about police movements, and at other times repeats Trump’s rhetoric about how “LA NEEDS THE NATIONAL GUARD”, in attempts to stoke outrage.
“I would call it a duality: I do on-the-ground reporting and I also commentate on issues,” Higby said.
With a limited number of reporters in Los Angeles, Fox News tapped Higby and Buttazoni for unpaid television appearances over the weekend, cutting to them for live updates.
Liberal protesters who recognised Higby and Buttazoni berated them publicly, and Buttazoni eventually took off any identifying badges with his name from his clothes.
Higby said he received enough “credible threats” on social media that he paid $3000 to hire two bodyguards.
Left-leaning creators including Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, 33, have also reported from rallies in Los Angeles, though in seemingly smaller numbers.
Piker’s Twitch stream from the same Los Angeles protest Higby attended lasted eight hours and received 1.4 million views.
Andrew Callaghan, a Los Angeles journalist and the creator of media company Channel 5 News, which also covered the protests, said the market for protest and riot videos was born during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020.
But it has exploded since, with some right-wing creators using the “independent” label even though they are partisan, he added.
“They don’t have a boss, so they can say they’re independent, but they’re following the exact same incentive structures as the conservative establishment media,” Callaghan said in an interview.
“Clickbait, key frames that don’t reflect the reality of the situation, doing whatever they can to absorb the audience that otherwise would be watching the same programming on Fox News.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Eli Tan
Photographs by: Philip Cheung
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
