Trump Suddenly Cares About ‘Insurrectionists' and Protecting Cops
Insurrectionists beat cops with flag poles, crushed them with riot shields, tased them in the neck, and spat on them during the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But when President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that he has no tolerance for 'insurrectionists' who clash with police officers, he wasn't talking about the 1,500 rioters he pardoned upon assuming office earlier this year; he was talking about people in Los Angeles, California, protesting his administration's anti-immigration actions.
Speaking to reporters outside of the White House on Monday, the president claimed that demonstrators opposing sweeping ICE raids in L.A. were 'professional agitators, they're insurrectionists, they're bad people,' and that 'they should be in jail.'
It's clear that while there is public unrest in Los Angeles, the city is not in the throes of an active insurrection against the federal government — a claim Trump and his allies have repeatedly made since protests began on Friday. 'An insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States,' White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller wrote on X in response to videos of protesters blocking a highway. The president added on Sunday that 'a once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals […] now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations.'
Unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act — an 1807 law that allows the president to deploy the military or the National Guard for the purpose of domestic law enforcement — members of the guard would be restricted largely to the protection of federal buildings.
Local and state lawmakers have also stated unequivocally that the tensions in the city increased severely after Trump federalized National Guard troops for deployment in L.A. without the request or consent of California officials. Local officials in Los Angeles say that while there have been instances of protesters clashing with police, vandalizing property, and burning vehicles, the majority of such confrontations have been isolated, taken place at night, and — according to L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell — are not exemplary of 'the people that we see during the day who are legitimately out there exercising their First Amendment rights to be able to express their feelings about the immigration enforcement issue.'
Trump, who resisted activating the National Guard on Jan. 6 to quell the violence being carried out by his supporters against law enforcement, has now warned that disrespect toward law enforcement will be met with a show of force. 'Nobody's going to spit on our police officers. Nobody's going to spit on our military,' the president told reporters Monday, before posting on Truth Social: 'IF THE SPIT, WE WILL HIT.'
The administration's top law enforcement officials are also warning against aggression toward law enforcement. 'Hit a cop, you're going to jail… doesn't matter where you came from, how you got here, or what movement speaks to you,' FBI Director Kash Patel wrote. 'If the local police force won't back our men and women on the thin blue line, we @FBI will.'
Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino added that the agency would 'be investigating and pursuing all available leads for assault on a federal officer.'
'We will not forget. Even after you try to,' Bongino added.
The statements ring a little hollow when one remembers that just a few months ago the president pardoned not only individuals who spit on cops, but who outright assaulted them. Miller, Patel, Bongino, and other administration figures have largely excused their actions and demonized the Biden administration for pursuing legal action against the rioters.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reportedly treated five LAPD officers for minor injuries across several days of protest, while arresting dozens. On Jan. 6, in the span of just a few hours, at least 140 members of law enforcement were injured, and over a dozen hospitalized.
What's the difference between the protests in Los Angeles and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6? Well, the former consists of people protesting Trump's agenda, and the latter was an attempted coup carried out in Trump's name. The Jan. 6 rioters, including those who assaulted cops, have been recast in MAGA history not as criminals, but as martyrs to the cause.
It's not about protecting cops. It's about protecting Trump.
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