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The ICE Storm

A candid conversation with L.A. police chief Jim McDonnell about the complicated reality of ICE raids, hyperbolic crime narratives, and preparing for the World Cup and 2028 Olympics in the second Trump era.

Jim McDonnell
"In your business—news media—you go out there and you go where the action is. For instance, the unrest we had here [over the summer] was all confined downtown within one square mile. But if you were to watch the news and try to get an assessment of what was happening in Los Angeles, you would have thought the whole city was upside down," says Los Angeles Police Department chief Jim McDonnell. Photo: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Peter Hamby
December 23, 2025

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For a local official, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department sure has been top of mind for the president of the United States this year. Jim McDonnell, who has been in the job for just about a year, had to publicly fact-check Donald Trump a few months back, after the president claimed the chief had asked for the National Guard to be sent to Los Angeles to quell unrest after ICE descended on the city. “We don’t need the National Guard, and they are not here to help us right now,” McDonnell said in June.