Trump was spoiling for another street war. Now he's got one
Trump inflamed the scene. 'Violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents,' he wrote. He was determined to 'liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.'
It's a Trump political attack on the Democrat stronghold through the proxy of deportation and immigration. Asked if he would order the arrest of Californian officials who tried to interfere with the immigrant round-up, Trump replied: 'Officials who stand in the way of law and order, yea, they will face judges.' Newsom's response: 'Arrest me, let's go.'
And Trump a little later: 'We're gonna have troops everywhere,' he told reporters.
Despite the pleas of the governor and the mayor to ask that protesters remain peaceful, by Monday afternoon (Australian time) the streets had turned decidedly violent.
'This violence I've seen is disgusting. It's escalated now,' said LAPD's McDonnell. 'We are overwhelmed as far as the number of people out there engaged in this type of activity.'
The Trump provocation worked. He's been spoiling for a fight. For years. In his first term, he asked the country's most senior military officer to shoot unarmed civilian protesters in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, refused.
In 2020, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to justify ordering the military to shoot civilians. According to a book by former Wall Street Journal and now New York Times reporter Michael Bender, Milley pointed to a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, the president who led the Union in the Civil War, and told Trump: 'That guy had an insurrection. What we have, Mr President, is a protest.'
Trump stayed his hand then; he's intent on playing now. 'Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!' he wrote on Monday afternoon (Australian time). Hegseth said that 500 Marines were preparing to deploy.
Soldiers who had enlisted, trained and, in many cases, fought to protect the US, its Constitution and its people from foreign enemies, were to be brought into action against civilians on the streets of a major US city. Which had been calm just three days earlier.
There's been much commentary on Trump's use of a particular legal authority to support sending in the militia and also the military, which he justifies because the protests 'constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the government'.
Loading
But perhaps the most telling point of Trump's executive order is its unconditional breadth. It is not specific to Los Angeles or to California. It is generic. It could be applied to the entire country. And it is not limited in duration. The length of any deployment is at the discretion of the defence secretary.
Trump gave himself the scope to deploy the militia and/or the military 'where protests against these [federal] functions are occurring or are likely to occur'. Likely to occur? He once claimed to be a very stable genius, but now, apparently, he is also clairvoyant.
In addition, says his order, 'the secretary of defence may employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion'.
It's not difficult to see how this could be used as the basis for an authoritarian takeover attempt of the US. Asked a couple of weeks ago whether it was his job to uphold the US Constitution, Trump answered: 'I don't know.'
His deportation program will prove harmful to investment, growth and stability. The US economy has always relied on millions of undocumented immigrants to do the low-wage work that locals will not touch. As LA mayor Bass says: 'You can't terrify the workforce and expect the job to get done'.
Trump's power grab, his wanton authorisation of the use of armed force on American soil and his autocratic tendencies all suggest that the FBI's Bongino was only half right. More accurately, ' we bring the chaos and we bring the handcuffs'.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

News.com.au
15 minutes ago
- News.com.au
US reviewing AUKUS as Trump pursues ‘America first agenda'
The US is reviewing the AUKUS defence pact with Australia and the UK to ensure it aligns with Donald Trump's 'America First' agenda. Australia has already spent billions on laying the groundwork to acquire and build nuclear-powered submarines and train personnel to crew them as part of the partnership. US defence officials said overnight the move was about 'ensuring the highest readiness of our servicemembers'. 'The Department is reviewing AUKUS as part of ensuring that this initiative of the previous Administration is aligned with the President's America First agenda,' they told media. 'As Secretary Hegseth has made clear, this means ensuring the highest readiness of our servicemembers, that allies step up fully to do their part for collective defence, and that the defence industrial base is meeting our needs. 'This review will ensure the initiative meets these common sense, America First criteria.'


West Australian
16 minutes ago
- West Australian
Donald Trump says United States-China deal is ‘done', People's Republic to supply rare earths
US President Donald Trump says a deal with China is 'done', adding the People's Republic will supply 'magnets and any necessary rare earths' and the Chinese students can access US colleges. 'Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,' Mr Trump announced on Truth Social. 'Full magners, and any nexessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China. 'Likewise, we will provide China what was ageed to, including Chineses students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). MR Trump said the US would get 55 per cent tariffs, with China getting 10 per cent. 'Relationship is excellent.' In a follow up post, Mr Trump added: 'President Xi and I are going to work closely together to open up China to American trade.' 'This would be a great WIN for both countries!' After high-level talks between the two powerhouse countries in London, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the deal was almost set. 'We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,' he said. Mr Lutnick told CNBC that a one-on-one call between Mr Trump and China's President Xi Jinping had 'changed everything'. 'They are going to approve all applications for magnets from United States companies right away,' he said.


West Australian
16 minutes ago
- West Australian
Deal gets US-China trade truce back on track: Trump
A deal getting the fragile truce in the US-China trade war back on track is done, US President Donald Trump says after negotiators from the United States and China agreed on a framework covering tariff rates. The deal also removes Chinese export restrictions on rare earth minerals and allows Chinese students access to US universities. Trump took to his social media platform to offer some of the first details to emerge from two days of marathon talks held in London that had, in the words of US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, put "meat on the bones" of an agreement reached last month in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached crushing triple-digit levels. "Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi (Jinping) and me," Trump said on the Truth Social platform. "Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55 per cent tariffs, China is getting 10 per cent." A White House official said the 55 per cent represents the sum of a baseline 10 per cent "reciprocal" tariff Trump has imposed on goods imported from nearly all US trading partners; 20 per cent on all Chinese imports because of punitive measures Trump has imposed on China, Mexico and Canada associated with his accusation that the three facilitate the flow of the opioid fentanyl into the US; and finally pre-existing 25 per cent levies on imports from China that were put in place during Trump's first term in the White House. Lutnick said the 55 per cent rate for Chinese imports is now fixed and unalterable. Asked on Wednesday on CNBC if the tariff levels on China would not change, he said: "You can definitely say that." Still, many specifics of the deal and details for how it would be implemented remain unclear. Officials from the two superpowers had gathered at a rushed meeting in London starting on Monday following a call last week between Trump and Chinese leader Xi that broke a stand-off that had developed just weeks after a preliminary deal reached in Geneva that had defused their trade row. The Geneva deal had faltered over China's continued curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, aircraft and other goods to China. Lutnick said the agreement reached in London would remove restrictions on Chinese exports of rare earth minerals and magnets and some of the recent US export restrictions "in a balanced way" but did not provide details after the talks concluded around midnight London time. "We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents," Lutnick said, adding that both sides will now return to present the framework to their respective presidents for approvals. "And if that is approved, we will then implement the framework," he said. In a separate briefing, China's Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang also said a trade framework had been reached in principle that would be taken back to US and Chinese leaders.