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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Trump calls LA a ‘trash heap' of ‘chaos and disorder' in Fort Bragg troop rally after sending Marines to quell protests
President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned what was meant as a celebration of the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, for soldiers at one of the nation's most storied military bases, into a bellicose campaign-style rally as he attacked Democratic elected officials and denigrated the country 's second-largest city as a c esspool made rotten by 'uncontrolled migration.' Speaking before a crowd of uniformed soldiers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Trump defended his decision to send National Guard soldiers and active duty Marines to quell protests against his anti-immigrant deportation operations in Los Angeles as necessary to prevent attacks on federal law enforcement from a 'violent mob.' He claimed that had he not ordered the soldiers into federal service over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles would be on fire, and compared the guardsmen's mission to past overseas battles in which the Army had fought over its 250 years. 'Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California. As Commander in Chief, I will not let that happen. It's never going to happen,' Trump said, overstating the current state of affairs in LA by several degrees. Trump told the soldiers that the protests and unrest in Los Angeles represented a 'full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags, with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country,' before segueing into a partisan attack on former President Joe Biden. He accused 'stupid people or radical left people or sick people' in the previous administration of having allowed 'millions of people' to 'come into our country, totally unchecked and unvetted' and claimed those people were responsible for attacks on police in Los Angeles over the last few days. 'They're hurling bricks and cinder blocks at law enforcement ... they're breaking up the sidewalks and the curbs, breaking it up with big, strong hammers. These guys are professionals. These are not amateurs,' he claimed. 'These are animals, but they proudly carry the flags of other countries, but they don't carry the American flag. They only burn it.' The president cast his effort to use military force to tamp down protests against his immigration policies as a battle against a foreign foe rather than repression of the free speech rights guaranteed to all by the U.S. Constitution, telling the soldiers who'd been ordered to attend his speech that his administration would 'not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' 'That's what they are. Lot of those people were let in here by the Biden administration. They just poured right in. They came from prisons. They came from jails from all over the world. They came from mental institutions. They were the leaders of gangs. They were drug lords, allowed to come into our country,' he said. Trump's partisan commentary to the troops touched on many of the anti-immigrant tropes that have long been a staple of his political stump speech during his three campaigns for the presidency, including claims that other countries have deliberately sent criminals and mental patients to the United States to claim asylum with the consent of the Biden administration and the aid of Democrats in state and local governments. He also praised the thousands of National Guard soldiers and Marines he has dispatched over the past two days for 'standing guard to protect federal property and personnel and uphold the supremacy of federal law' while accusing Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of fomenting the violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. 'In Los Angeles, the governor of California, the mayor — they're incompetent and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists, they're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders,' he said. Continuing, the president praised his own election as a turning point when the country rejected Democratic rule and slammed Los Angeles as having 'gone from being one of the cleanest, safest and most beautiful cities on earth to being a trash heap with entire neighborhoods under the control of transnational gangs and criminal networks.' Echoing the openly racist rhetoric of European far-right parties, Trump blamed 'uncontrolled migration' for the city's supposed condition of 'chaos, dysfunction and disorder' and suggested that European leaders should adopt his anti-immigrant stance. 'They have it in Europe too. It's happening in many of the countries of Europe. They don't like it when I say it, but I'll say it loudly and clearly. They better do something before it's too late,' he said. The president's rabidly partisan denunciation of duly elected officials in the nation's most populous state came just hours after he made a chilling threat against free speech rights of Americans in the nation's capital ahead of the military parade he has ordered up to celebrate his own birthday on Saturday. Speaking in the Oval Office following an impromptu event to discuss forest management ahead of the upcoming summer wildfire season, Trump was riffing on what he described as violent excesses by protesters who've been demonstrating against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles when he was asked about the possibility of protests against the June 14 parade. The president said it would be an 'amazing day' and cited the 'tanks ... planes ... all sorts of things' that will be on display during the spectacle, which is ostensibly meant to mark the Army's 250th. He compared the parade, which breaks from the American tradition that largely eschews militaristic or jingoistic displays of the sort routinely seen in authoritarian countries, to European celebrations of the end of the Second World War. 'We won the war, and we're the only country that didn't celebrate it, and we're going to be celebrating big on Saturday. We're going to have a lot of and if there's any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,' Trump said. He reiterated the explicit threat a moment later, telling 'those people who want to protest' that they would be 'met with very big force' once more. He also opined further that any protest against the parade on Saturday would consist only of 'people who hate our country.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Trump preparing to send thousands of immigrants including Europeans to Guantanamo military prison: reports
Donald Trump 's administration is reportedly preparing to send thousands of immigrants to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as soon as this week, marking a rapid escalation of the president's mass deportation agenda that could target hundreds of people from America's European allies. Immigration officials are considering whether to transfer foreign nationals from the United Kingdom as well as Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine, according to reporting from The Washington Post and Politico. Officials are not expected to inform their home countries about their imminent transfers to the notorious facility, which opened in 2002 at the height of the War on Terror. Most European allies accept deportees from the United States to their home countries, making it unclear why the Trump administration would first force them into a detention camp roundly condemned by international human rights groups. The naval base is expected to temporarily detain deportees before they're removed to their home countries in an effort to free up bed space at immigration detention facilities on American soil. In January, the president said as many as 30,000 immigrants could be imprisoned inside tents and camps at the military facility. Dozens of Venezuelan detainees were initially held there before the administration abruptly emptied the facility in February following a lawsuit from civil rights groups. Roughly 300 immigrants have been imprisoned there within the first few months of his administration. A recent lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union suggests roughly 70 immigrants are currently detained at the facility, where they face 'punitive' conditions, rodent infestations, insufficient food, a lack of clean clothes and only one hour of relief from their 'indoor cage.' 'In effect, the government is perversely utilizing Guantanamo's well-known history as a site of abuse and mistreatment, including as the location of two former CIA 'black sites,' to frighten immigrants,' according to the lawsuit. Use of the facility exceeds $100,000 per day per detainee, according to Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security committee. Guantanamo's drastically expanded use would follow pressure from top Trump administration officials to boost immigration arrests after falling short of the president's campaign ambitions for the 'largest mass deportation operation in American history.' Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly defended use of the facility to jail suspected Tren de Aragua gang members and 'the worst of the worst and illegal criminals,' according to Noem. But the administration has also detained 'lower-threat' immigrants at the facility who were in the United States illegally but never been charged or convicted of violent offenses or other serious crimes, according to federal guidelines.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Tulsi Gabbard releases ‘unhinged' video claiming ‘warmongers' want a nuclear conflict they know they'll survive
President Donald Trump's intelligence director posted a video warning of global 'elites' she claimed were pushing major superpowers towards a 'nuclear holocaust' on Tuesday. The purpose of Tulsi Gabbard's video and its grim theme was unclear, but appeared aimed at driving fears among her more than 3.7 million followers on X concerning a supposed cabal of powerful people whom Gabbard and the president have long argued continue to pull the strings behind the scenes — even with Trump once again in the White House. Individual targets of right-wing conspiracy theories on this subject include big Democratic funding billionaires such as George Soros and Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates. Gabbard, speaking directly to the camera, says in the video that the world is 'closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before' and blames unnamed interest for supposedly inciting conflict between superpowers. '[P]olitical elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear intentions between nuclear powers,' Gabbard says in the video. 'Perhaps it's because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won't have access to.' 'It's up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness. We must reject this path to nuclear war and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust,' she then followed. Many commenters on social media were taken aback by the foreboding theme of the video and Gabbard's delivery, with some calling it 'unhinged.' The context for the director of national intelligence's dark message was Gabbard's recent visit to Hiroshima, one of the two cities bombed by the U.S. with atomic bombs during the World War II. In contemporary context, it also follows the sudden escalation of tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, as well as the continued failure of the Trump administration to convince Russia to cease its invasion of Ukraine, as the president promised he could. Gabbard reflected on the damage the Hiroshima bombing caused in her message, explaining: 'This attack obliterated the city, killed over 300,000 people, many dying instantly, while others died from severe burns, injuries, radiation, sickness and cancer that set in the following months and years. Nagasaki suffered the same fate: homes, schools, families; all gone in a flash.' Her efforts to blame modern-day conflicts on 'political elite[s]' is a common tactic for the Trump-aligned far right, which includes Steve Bannon and the cohort of Republicans who style themselves as 'anti-globalist'. In reality, the coalition of nativists and anti-interventionists have combined to form a second-term Trump foreign policy that has pursued Obama-esque talks with Iran, ceased strikes on Houthi forces attacking western vessels and Israeli targets after deeming the campaign ineffective, and sought peace in Ukraine on terms that may not end up being favorable to the Ukrainian government. At the same time, Trump is taking a tougher-than-ever approach to trade with China and showing a willingness to buck the Israeli government both on Gaza and Iran policy. The hatred of said elites was a driving force behind the cuts to USAID and the general gutting of America's foreign aid infrastructure under the first six months of Trump's second term. Michael Flynn, national security adviser to Trump in his first presidency, wielded it to blame a supposed shadowy collection of wealthy powerful people for 'imposing' the Covid virus on the world. It is also one of the major forces motivating the Trump administration's war on Harvard and other top universities, which populist conservatives have long depicted as corrupt institutions that churn out so-called 'elites' and legal/political leaders with liberal or far-left sensibilities. Gabbard previously had a record of covering up the use of banned weapons, not warning about their usage. During her 2020 bid for the presidency, Gabbard's campaign published materials questioning whether forces loyal to then-ruler of Syria Bashar al-Assad were the victims of a false flag narrative blaming them for a chemical attack on rebel forces. According to the Washington Post, the materials were published on her campaign website in 2019; by the next year, she said publicly that she did not believe that 'false flag' story to be true.
