Did retired Gen. Jim Mattis of Richland condemn Trump for LA actions? We checked
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Social media posts say retired Gen. Jim Mattis is criticizing Trump
- But statement being posted was published 5 years ago
- Snopes confirmed Mattis's statement but clarified it was not about LA protests
You may have seen the posts on social media.
Retired four-star Gen. James Mattis, who calls Richland, Wash., home, condemns the Trump administration’s military response to protests in Los Angeles after reports of violence targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents, say some posts.
“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate,’” he is quoted as saying. “At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors.”
His statement says “I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding.”
Posters are correct that those are the words of Mattis, who served as Trump’s secretary of defense from 2017 to 2019, as published in The Atlantic.
But linking those words to Trump’s actions in L.A. is incorrect.
His statement was actually published in 2020 in response to protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
On June 1, 2020, President Trump threatened to deploy thousands of active duty military forces across the United States if cities do not clamp down on violence in protests, McClatchy reported then.
He started outside the White House, where protesters, had been violent. On June 1, as a demonstration that had been peaceful approached a citywide curfew, Trump ordered police to take disperse the crowd.
He walked to a nearby church scarred by fire the night before and held up a Bible while D.C. police responded by firing tear gas, some mounted on horseback, and D.C. National Guard members carried shields that read “Military Police,” McClatchy reported.
Some of the social media posts noted the 2020 date on Mattis’s statement, but pointed out its relevancy to Los Angeles protests that were in response to federal immigration raids.
But as his comments spread over social media, some posters said he was referring to Los Angeles this week, and one L.A. news website also reported that.
Snopes investigated as the rumor spread on social media sites like Feminist News’ Facebook page and individuals’ pages. It concluded he did write the statement “In Union There is Strength” but that it had nothing to do with the current immigration protests in Los Angeles.
Mattis did not reply to Snopes when it asked by email if he wanted to comment.
On a post of Mattis’s statement on Reddit that did not include a date, one commenter clarified, “Mind you this is from 2020 but absolutely holds true today.”
Mattis has been largely quiet on political topics in recent years, including declining to make an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election.
What Gen. Mattis wrote
But in 2020 he wrote what NPR then called “an extraordinary criticism of President Trump’s leadership.”
Here are excerpts:
▪ “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”
▪ “Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.”
▪ “We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.”
▪ “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.”
Trump sent National Guard troops and then Marines to California over objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The Associated Press reported 470 arrests related to protests in downtown Los Angeles, most for failing to leave an area at the request of law enforcement.
It said there have been a handful of more serious charges, including for assault against officers and for possession of a Molotov cocktail and a gun.
Read Mattis’s full statement from 2020 at n.pr/3FSXucW.
Editor’s Note: The headline for the Edition version of this article incorrectly stated comments from Mattis were about the Los Angeles protests. We apologize for this error.
This story was originally published June 13, 2025 at 11:23 AM with the headline "Did retired Gen. Jim Mattis of Richland condemn Trump for LA actions? We checked."