Fox News presenter Jessica Tarlov has been slammed by viewers as ‘racist’ and ‘elitist’ after she asked her co-host Jesse Watters who would do his manicures if Trump’s sweeping deportations continue. Tarlov, who serves as the sole liberal panelist on The Five, made the astonishing remark during a live show this week, prompting shock from Watters and many people who were watching.

‘Thousands have been deported. People are in foreign gulags without criminal records,’ Tarlov said, as the commentators discussed what sparked the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles on Friday. ‘All right, well, Jessica, when you break into the country, you’re gonna get kicked out,’ Watters interjected.

As the two continued to butt heads over whether illegal migrants have the right to stay in the US, Tarlov snapped and asked: ‘Who’s gunna do your manicure, Jesse?’ Watters, clearly shocked, said he doesn’t get manicures, to which Tarlov pushed back, saying she didn’t believe him after seeing his nails ‘every day’. ‘I cut them very well. I mean, is that bad? You want me to come in here with fangs?’ Watters asked, as the conversation degenerated from the issue at hand.

Fox News viewers condemned Tarlov’s comment, in response to a clip of the show being posted on the X social media platform. One viewer blasted the comment as displaying Tarlov’s ‘elitism’. ‘The limousine libs want their indentured servants,’ another person agreed. ‘Remember, she gets paid to say stupid stuff,’ a third person said, while another slammed her comment as ‘racist and demeaning’.

One person said the remark echoed an apparent common ignorance among Democrat voters. ‘They really don’t get why they lose,’ the viewer wrote on X. It comes as tensions surrounding Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration raids have reached a boiling point, with widespread unrest erupting across the country.

Protests broke out in Los Angeles on Friday, in response to ICE agents allegedly detaining two truckloads of people at a manufacturing site in the California city. The demonstrations escalated into violence, looting and arson over the weekend, with several protesters also waving Mexican and Palestinian flags. Trump responded by mobilizing 4,000 National Guard members to quell the riots, along with 700 US Marines.

LA Mayor Karen Bass also said a curfew had been put in place from 8pm until 6am in an effort to quell the unrest. ‘If you drive through downtown LA, the graffiti is everywhere and has caused significant damages,’ Bass said, adding that 29 businesses were looted on Monday night alone.

Demonstrators have said that Trump’s immigration raids are lacking due process, while breaking migrant families apart. The LA protests also inspired anti-ICE demonstrations in other cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta. Some rallies involved a few dozen people, while others attracted thousands.

Trump favored a heavy-handed approach to quell the demos, and even said it would be ‘great’ if his border tsar Tom Homan arrested California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom hit back by challenging Homan to arrest him, while slamming Trump’s decision to deploy troops in LA as fulfilling ‘the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president’.