Trump's unprecedented show of force in L.A., Washington are pushing norms, sparking fears

Los Angeles Times

2 days ago

In downtown Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a news conference with Democratic leaders when the Border Patrol showed up nearby to conduct a showy immigration raid.
In Washington D.C., hundreds of National Guard troops patrolled the streets, some in armored vehicles, as city officials battled with the White House over whether the federal government can take control of the local police department.
President Trump has long demonized 'blue' cities like Los Angeles, Washington and New York, frequently claiming — often contrary to the evidence — that their Democratic leaders have allowed crime and blight to worsen. Trump, for example, cited out-of-control crime as the reason for his Washington D.C. guard deployment, even though data shows crime in the city is down.
But over the last few months, Trump's rhetoric has given way to searing images of federal power on urban streets that are generating both headlines and increasing alarm in some circles.
While past presidents have occasionally used the Insurrection Act to deploy the military in response to clear, acute crises, the way Trump has deployed troops in Democratic-run cities is unprecedented in American politics. Trump has claimed broader inherent powers and an authority to deploy troops to cities when and where he decides there is an emergency, said Matthew Beckmann, a political science professor at UC Irvine.
'President Trump is testing how far he can push his authority, in no small part to find out who or what can challenge him,' he said.
State and local officials reacted with shock when they learned Border Patrol agents had massed outside Newsom's news conference Thursday. The governor was preparing to announce the launch of a campaign for a ballot measure, which if approved by voters, would redraw the state's congressional maps to favor Democrats before the 2026 midterms.
Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino told a Fox 11 reporter: 'We're here making Los Angeles a safer place since we won't have politicians that'll do that, we do that ourselves.' When the reporter noted that Newsom was nearby, Bovino responded, 'I don't know where he's at.'
However, local law enforcement sources told The Times that the raid was not random and that they had received word from the federal authorities that Little Tokyo was targeted due to its proximity to the governor's event. The raid, the sources told The Times, was less about making arrests and more of a show of force intended to disrupt Democrats.
Whatever the reason, the raid generated news coverage and at least in the conservative media, overshadowed the announcement of the redistricting plan.
Trump's second term has been marked by increased use of troops in cities. He authorized the deployment of thousands of Marines and National Guard troops to L.A. in June after immigration raids sparked scattered protests. The troops saw little action, and local leaders said the deployment was unnecessary and only served to inflame tensions.
The operation reached a controversial zenith in July when scores of troops on horseback wearing tactical gear and driving armored vehicles, rolled through MacArthur Park. The incident generated much attention, but local police were surprised that the raid was brief and resulted in few arrests.
After the MacArthur Park raid, Mayor Karen Bass complained 'there's no plan other than fear, chaos and politics.'
Beckmann said the situation is a 'particularly perilous historical moment because we have a president willing to flout constitutional limits while Congress and the court have been willing to accept pretext as principle.'
UC Berkeley Political Science Professor Eric Schickler, co-director of the university's Institute of Governmental Studies, said the recent military displays are part of a larger mission to increase the power of the president and weaken other countervailing forces, such as the dismantling of federal agencies and the weakening of universities.
'It all adds up to a picture of really trying to turn the president into the one dominant force in American politics — he is the boss of everything, he controls everything,' Schickler said. 'And that's just not how the American political system has worked for 240 years.'
In some way, Trump's tactics are an extension of long-held rhetoric. In the 1980s, he regularly railed against crime in New York City, including the rape of a woman in Central Park that captured national headlines. The suspects, known as the Central Park Five, were exonerated after spending years in prison and have filed a defamation suit against Trump.
Trump and his backers say he is simply keeping campaign promises to reduce crime and deport people in the country illegally.
'Our law enforcement operations are about enforcing the law — not about Gavin Newsom,' said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Federal agents 'patrol all areas of Los Angeles every day with over 40 teams on the ground to make L.A. safe,' she said.
In Washington D.C., where the federal government has began assuming law enforcement responsibilities, the business of policing the streets of the nation's capital had radically transformed by Friday. Federal agencies typically tasked with investigating drug kingpins, gunrunners and cybercriminals were conducting traffic stops and helping with other routine policing.
Twenty federal law enforcement teams fanned out across the city Thursday night with more than 1,750 people joining the operation, a White House official told the Associated Press. They made 33 arrests, including 15 people who did not have permanent legal status. Others were arrested on warrants for murder, rape and driving under the influence, the official said.
Thaddeus Johnson, a senior fellow with the Council on Criminal Justice, said the administration's actions not only threaten democracy, but they also have real consequences for local leaders and residents. Citizens often can't distinguish between federal or local officers and don't know when the two groups are or aren't working together.
'That breeds a lot of confusion and also breeds a lot of fear,' Johnson said.
Thomas Abt, founding director of University of Maryland's Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction, emphasized that pulling federal agents from their jobs can hurt overall public safety.
'There's a real threat to politicizing federal law enforcement, and sending them wherever elected officials think there's a photo opportunity instead of doing the hard work of federal law enforcement,' Abt said.
Already, D.C. residents and public officials have pushed back on federal law enforcement's presence. When federal officers set up a vehicle checkpoint along the 14th Street Northwest corridor this week, hecklers shouted, 'Go home, fascists' and 'Get off our streets.'
On Friday, the District of Columbia filed an emergency motion seeking to block the Trump administration's takeover of the city's police department.
'This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,' D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement on Friday. 'The Administration's actions are brazenly unlawful. They go well beyond the bounds of the President's limited authority and instead seek a hostile takeover of MPD.'
The show of force in L.A. has also left local officials outraged at what they see as deliberate efforts to sow fear and exert power. Hours before agents arrived in Little Tokyo, Bass and other officials held a news conference calling for an end to the continued immigration raids.
Bass said she believes the recent actions violated the temporary restraining order upheld this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting agents from targeting people solely based on their race, vocation, language or location.
The number of arrests in Southern California declined in July after a judge issued the order. But in the past two weeks, some higher profile raids have begun to ramp up again.
In one instance, an 18-year-old Los Angeles high school senior was picked up by federal immigration officers while walking his dog in Van Nuys. On Thursday, a man apparently running from agents who showed up at a Home Depot parking lot in Monrovia was hit by a car and killed on the 210 Freeway.
Bass appeared to be seething as she spoke to reporters after Newsom's press conference on Thursday, calling the raid in Little Tokyo a 'provocative act' and 'unbelievably disrespectful.'
'They're talking about disorder in Los Angeles, and they are the source of the disorder in Los Angeles right now,' she said.