California’s First Lady shrugs off riots crisis to shop in Beverly Hills
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Her husband is fighting for his life politically for the second time this year while another crisis grips their state.
But California’s First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom shrugged off the chaos on Monday as she stepped out in under-siege Los Angeles.
Jennifer, 50, was spotted at One Beverly Hills – a luxurious complex of wellness centers and spas in the city’s most exclusive zip code.
She was dressed the part in a pair of $500 Common Project sneakers and a $2,500 Goyard tote bag, her bodyguard trailing behind her as she offered a coy smile.
Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker, seemed upbeat and calm.
At the same time, Marines were marching towards Los Angeles under orders from President Trump while businesses recovered from looters. The unrest took a dark turn on Tuesday morning with the discovery of a body outside one of the trashed stores.
Newsom’s representatives angrily denied any suggestion that she was luxuriating amid the chaos, telling Daily Mail: ‘The First Partner didn’t have a spa treatment yesterday, but she does have a prior skin cancer diagnosis and was picking up skin care products on her personal time.’ Jennifer previously shared her battle with skin cancer in 2023.
Her husband, meanwhile, continues to do battle with the president and his supporters, insisting he has the situation under control. Both he and LA Mayor Karen Bass have demanded that Trump withdraw military troops from the streets.
The protests erupted on Friday when anti-ICE demonstrators seized on a number of police investigations unfolding around the city.
California First Lady Jennifer Newsom was spotted leaving the One Beverly Hills complex in LA on Monday
President Donald Trump has activated 4,000 National Guard troops and deployed hundreds of US Marines to the city to quell protests despite objections from Newsom and other local leaders.
Newsom said that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops has only inflamed the situation and made it more difficult for local law enforcement to respond to the demonstrations.
Trump claims the city would have been ‘completely obliterated’ if he had not deployed the Guard.
The chaos began on Friday when anti-ICE protesters seized on a handful of police raids across the city, taking to the streets to burn cars and march against what they say are unfair deportations.
Trump claims the city would have been ‘completely obliterated’ if he had not deployed the Guard.
Jennifer Newsom, carrying a $2,650 Goyard Saint Louis bag and wearing $485 sneakers, sported a soft smile at the One Beverly Hills plaza
Governor Gavin Newsom taunted Trump and his border czar, daring them to ‘arrest him’ and insisting he has the riots ‘under control’
Protesters threw rocks and other objects at officers and vehicles, blocked a major freeway and looted downtown businesses.
Police responded by firing projectiles like pepper balls, as well as flash bang grenades and tear gas.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered again on Monday outside a federal detention center in downtown LA where immigrants have been held. They chanted ‘free them all’ as they waved Mexican and Central American flags.
National Guard forces formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building, and police dispersed the crowd using gas canisters and arrested some protesters.
At dusk, officers had running confrontations with protesters who had scattered into the Little Tokyo section of the city.
As people watched from apartment patios above street level and as tourists huddled inside hotels, a large contingent of LAPD and officers and sheriff’s deputies fired several flash bangs that boomed through side streets along with tear gas.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told KABC that more than 100 people had been arrested on Monday but that the majority of protesters were nonviolent.
Newsom with wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Her office insisted she was picking up skincare on her ‘personal time’
Anti-ICE demonstrators clash with police near the federal building and detention center in LA on Monday as protests over immigration raids continue for a fourth day
US Customs and Border Patrol agents and the California National Guard protect the federal building in Los Angeles as protesters rally Monday for the fourth day in a row
Fireworks explode around police officers in riot gear during a protest in response to federal immigration operations in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of downtown LA on Monday
Trump’s decision to mobilize 700 Marines based in Southern California escalated his confrontation with Newsom, who filed a lawsuit on Monday asserting that Trump’s deployment of Guard troops without the governor’s consent was illegal.
The Guard deployment was the first time in decades that a president activated the Guard absent a request from a sitting governor.
While the Marines are only tasked with guarding federal property temporarily until the full contingent of 4,000 Guard troops arrives, the use of active military to respond to civil disturbances is extremely rare.
‘This isn’t about public safety,’ Newsom wrote on X on Monday. ‘It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.’
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed, said he was ‘gravely troubled’ by Trump’s deployment of active-duty Marines.
‘Since our nation’s founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on US soil,’ he said.
Trump has justified his decision to deploy active military troops to LA by describing the protests as a violent occupation of the city, a characterization that Newsom and Bass have said is grossly exaggerated.
The president, in a Tuesday morning post on his Truth Social platform, claimed LA would be ‘burning to the ground right now’ if he had not deployed troops to the city.
Protests spread to neighboring Orange County on Monday night after immigration raids there, with demonstrators gathering at the Santa Ana Federal building, according to local officials and news reports.
Protests also sprang up in at least nine other US cities on Monday, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news reports.
In Austin, Texas, police fired non-lethal munitions and detained several people as they clashed with a crowd of several hundred protesters.
Trump officials have branded the protests as lawless and blamed state and local Democrats for protecting undocumented immigrants with sanctuary cities.
Meanwhile. US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged on Monday to carry out more operations to round up suspected immigration violators.
