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WASHINGTON

The White House said Wednesday that it does not yet know who might be behind payments that President Donald Trump is alleging are being sent to Los Angeles demonstrators who have continued to rally against his mass deportation efforts in America's second-largest city.

When asked for further details on the alleged payments, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt asked journalists to look into the matter.

"It's a good question the president is raising, and one we are looking into, about who is funding these insurrectionists and these rioters, in these protesters and these illegal criminals," Leavitt told reporters.

"Who is funding these illegal aliens who are coming in with this very professional riot gear? It's a question everyone in this room who cares about truth should be asking, and we encourage your help in trying to get to the bottom of that question," she added.

Trump on Tuesday alleged that California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are "incompetent, and they paid troublemakers, agitators, and insurrectionists. They're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders." The president later attempted to walk back those comments when asked by reporters about the allegations.

"I didn’t say the governor or the mayor. I said somebody's paying them, I think. And if they're not, they're just troublemakers. What can I tell you? But I believe somebody's paying them," he said.

Trump has deployed roughly 4,000 US National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to the streets of Los Angeles in defiance of warnings from Newsom and Bass that the action would only serve to further inflame already-heightened tensions.

A federal judge denied Newsom's request for a restraining order to block what Newsom described as Trump's "unlawful militarization of Los Angeles." Senior District Judge Charles Breyer with the Northern District of California instead set a Thursday hearing on Newsom's request.

Protests erupted Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided local businesses and detained hundreds of people suspected of living in the US illegally. The Trump administration has continued to carry out the raids in defiance of community opposition.

Critics of the raids say ICE is going after law-abiding undocumented immigrants, a vital part of the community and the local economy, rather than the criminals that Trump pledged to deport while campaigning last year to return to the White House.