Gavin Newsom Warns Trump Is Acting as a Dictator Amid Protests: ‘Moment We Have Feared Has Arrived'

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a day ago

California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a stark warning about Donald Trump not only to citizens of his state but to the nation at large: 'The moment we have feared has arrived.'
Newsom, in a speech broadcast on local television and streamed online early Tuesday night, unambiguously said that Trump is trying to assume dictatorial powers and that he'll be coming for other states soon enough.
Newsom's remarks came on the 5th day of protests against ICE agents, which Trump has used as an excuse to send military forces to Los Angeles to quell protest, which Newsom pointed out has been done illegally.
Newsom explained that the protests were kicked off after ICE agents began randomly raiding locations throughout greater Los Angeles, noting one particularly authoritarian example on Saturday morning 'when federal agents jumped out of an unmarked van near home depot parking lot, they began grabbing people, a deliberate targeting of a heavily Latino suburb.'
'Families separated, friends, quite literally, disappearing,' he said also.
Newsom praised local law enforcement and military servicemembers, and acknowledged that eventually, vandals took advantage of the chaotic situation, saying 'if you incite violence or destroy our communities, you're going to be held to account. That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated.'
But, he said, 'this brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation,' later adding that law enforcement is 'not what Donald Trump wanted. He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety.'
ICE agents, working on Trump's orders, are :traumatizing our communities, and that seems to be the point,' Newsom later said, adding that 'California will keep fighting, keep fighting on behalf of our people, all of our people, including in the courts.'
'If some of us could be snatched off the streets without a warrant based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves, but they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
Newsom also reminded those watching that Trump is 'not opposed to lawlessness and violence, as long as it serves him, What more evidence do we need than Jan. 6,' referring to the 2021 attack on the capital Trump incited in order to keep power after losing the 2020 election.
'I ask everyone take time reflect on this perilous moment, a president who wants to be bound by no law or constitution, perpetuating a unified assault on American traditions,' Newsom continued. :This is a president who, in just over 140 days, has fired government watchdogs that could hold him accountable, accountable for corruption and fraud. He's declared a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself… He's delegitimizing news organizations, and he's assaulting the First Amendment and the threat of defunding them at threat. He's dictating what universities themselves can teach. He's targeting law firms and the judicial branch that are the foundations of an orderly in civil society. He's calling for a sitting governor to be arrested for no other reason than to, in his own words, for getting elected.'
Newsom then noted that Trump's takeover of California's national guard didn't just apply to California, but to every other state. 'It clearly will not end here, other states will be next, democracy is next, democracy is under assault before our eyes' he said. 'The moment we have feared has arrived.'
Trump is 'taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our founding fathers' historic project, three co-equal branches of independent government… no longer any checks and balances. Congress is nowhere to be found… The Rule of Law has increasingly been given way to the rule of Don,' Newsom said.
Newsom concluded by urging people 'to stand up justice,' arguing that 'what Donald Trump wants most is your fealty. Your silence to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.'
As protests against immigration raids continue in Los Angeles, Trump has enlisted 4,000 members of the National Guard and around 700 U.S. Marines to the city. Mayor Karen Bass said earlier Tuesday that the city has ample police capacity to handle the protest on their own.
Newsom encouraged Angelenos to exercise their first amendment rights to protest but asked them to 'please please do it peacefully.'
The protests, which began Thursday after federal immigration raids on businesses heated up, were peaceful until Trump enlisted federal troops to the city. Newsom said 'that's not what Donald Trump wanted. He again chose escalation. He chose more force,' Newsom said. 'He chose theatrics over public safety.'
Watch the address here:
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