Commentary: Why on earth is Dr. Phil involved in immigration raids? Another made-for-TV event from a reality star president
Many outrageous and unsettling things happened in Los Angeles over the weekend. On Friday, multiple immigration raids, in downtown's Fashion District and outside a Home Depot in Paramount, sparked a not unusual response that led to police involvement, during which many, including union official David Huerta, were arrested.
Ostensibly dissatisfied with the handling of the situation, President Trump, over objections from both L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, made the highly unusual — and potentially illegal — decision to send in the National Guard. Tensions escalated and by Sunday, portions of L.A. freeways were shut down as some protesters and/or outside agitators vandalized downtown stores, defaced buildings, hurled rocks from downtown overpasses onto law enforcement vehicles and set fire to a few Waymo cars. Trump's border advisor, Tom Homan, threatened to arrest Newsom if citizens of this sanctuary state continued to interfere with immigration raids, and Newsom publicly dared him to do it, adding that California would be suing the Trump administration for making the situation worse by sending in the National Guard. On Monday, Homan appeared to backtrack on his threat while Trump said he would support it.
It was both a little — no one should have been surprised that ICE raids in L.A. would spark protests and these were, relatively speaking, small and nonviolent — and a lot. Sending in the National Guard was an obvious military flex, designed to to bait Angelenos while perhaps distracting Americans from Trump's far greater troubles.
Read more: No, Dr. Phil wasn't present at L.A. ICE raids, but he taped interview with Trump's border advisor
But nothing said 'this is a made-for-TV event brought to you by the same reality-star-led administration that proposed making legal immigration into a television competition' as the presence of Phil McGraw. Who, after being embedded with ICE officials during raids in Chicago earlier this year, spent some of this weekend kicking it with Homan in L.A.'s Homeland Security headquarters.
As first reported by CNN's Brian Stelter, Dr. Phil was there to get 'a first-hand look' at the targeted operations and an 'exclusive' interview with Homan for 'Dr. Phil Primetime' on MeritTV, part of Merit Street Media, which McGraw owns.
Dr. Phil is, for the record, neither a journalist nor an immigration or domestic policy expert. He isn't even a psychologist anymore, having let his license to practice (which he never held in California) lapse years ago.
He is instead a television personality and outspoken Trump supporter who was on hand to … I honestly don't know what. Provide psychological support to Homan as he threatened to arrest elected officials for allowing citizens to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech while using local law enforcement to prevent any violence or destruction of property that might occur? Offer Homan another platform on which he could explain why Trump is breaking his own vow to target only those undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crime?
Read more: The reality TV roots of the MAGA coalition
Or maybe just provide a familiar face to help normalize rounding up people from their workplaces and off the street and sending in the National Guard when this doesn't appear to be happening smoothly enough.
There is, of course, the chance that McGraw asked Homan some tough questions. In a clip from the interview posted on X, he appears to begin his interview by asking what exactly happened this "busy" weekend in L.A. Homan replies that multiple law enforcement agencies were 'looking for at-large criminals' and serving search warrants as part of a larger money laundering investigation, including at one company where 'we knew about half of their employees were illegally in the United States' and in 'service of those warrants, we arrested 41 illegal aliens.'
Still, after years of claiming to be nonpolitical, McGraw gave the president a full-throated endorsement at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally in 2024 while denouncing diversity initiatives. McGraw said the name of his media company pays homage to Americans who made it 'on hard work … not on equal outcomes or DEI.'
McGraw's presence during immigration raids, and his choice as the person who should interview Homan even as things escalated in L.A., would seem downright weird if it weren't so politically perilous. Merit Street Media is one of a growing number of new news outlets claiming to offer 'fresh perspective' on 'American values' while hewing almost exclusively to Trump's MAGA message and offering 'safe spaces' to conservatives. Then-presidential candidate Trump told Dr. Phil in August — in reference to those involved in his felony conviction — 'revenge can be justified' and that he would win California if Jesus were counting the ballots.
Read more: Camp Pendleton Marines deployed to L.A.; after ICE protest, union leader faces a federal charge
Using McGraw as a platform to explain Trump and Homan's divisive immigration policy and incendiary decision in L.A. most certainly underlines the criticism that these raids, and the fallout they will inevitably cause particularly in sanctuary states and cities, are being conducted with maximum spectacle awareness. If McGraw isn't a direct part of the policy, he appears to be a big part of its publicity.
Which is a bit alarming. Over the years, McGraw has been criticized about his treatment of guests (some of whom sued) and staff. In 2020, he issued an apology for comparing the mounting deaths from COVID-19 to the (far smaller) number of deaths due to drowning in swimming pools.
After his fellow Oprah alum, Dr. Mehmet Oz, ran for the Senate last year, McGraw shrugged off the notion that he would ever follow suit, saying he 'doesn't know enough about it.' 'When you start talking to me about geopolitics and all the things that go into that — I'm a neophyte, I don't think I would be competent to do that.'
Nor is there any indication that he is well-versed in immigration or constitutional law. If Trump and Homan honestly wanted a recognizable TV brand to help walk Americans through the legal complications of what happened in L.A. over the weekend, they should have asked Judge Judy.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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