‘Sick’: Photos spark new furore in US chaos

The wife of California’s governor has been drawn into America’s growing political furore, and Donald Trump has floated a sinister conspiracy theory.

The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom has unleashed over a story from British publication The Daily Mail, which claimed his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, was callously shopping during the current law enforcement dramas.

His office said the story was from “sick people” and the photo was from months ago.

There have been “mass arrests” in Los Angeles during the evening hours, local time, after the authorities imposed a curfew intended to disperse protesters.

President Donald Trump, who has sent in both the National Guard and a contingent of US Marines against the wishes of local leaders, today suggested that Democrats, chiefly California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, had been paying protesters to cause trouble.

“They’re incompetent, and they paid troublemakers, agitators, and insurrectionists,” Mr Trump said during a speech in front of US soldiers at Fort Bragg.

“They’re engaged in this wilful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders.”

There is a clear difference, of course, between arguing that Mr Newsom and Ms Bass have responded incompetently to the protests, on the one hand, or arguing that they’re paying the protesters to agitate on the other.

Later in the day, while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr Trump was asked about his remark.

“No, I don’t say the Governor and the Mayor,” he said.

“I said somebody’s paying them, I think.”

Read on for more updates from Tuesday in the US.

Originally published as ‘Sick’: Photos spark new furore in US chaos