a day ago
Miranda Devine: Foreign flags fly in LA anti-ICE riots — vindicating Donald Trump and leaving Dems with no moral standing
The minute the foreign flags came out in the violent anti-ICE protests in LA over the weekend, that's when Donald Trump won the moral high ground.
An iconic image showing a masked man on a motorcycle circling a burning car while holding aloft a giant Mexican flag against a backdrop of black acrid smoke and a row of police cars captured the mood. It was the 'Summer of Love' all over again — and America has had a gutful.
The president could not have asked for a better advertisement for his tough border policies. He always said that the millions of illegal aliens who swarmed over the border under Joe Biden was an invasion, and here were the invaders making his point for him.
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As a result, the Democrats have no moral standing. They are moored in no man's land, owning Biden's invasion and the violent masked agitators waving any flag but America's. They own the arson and looting and attacks on police and federal agents. They own the funding mechanisms for the rent-a-riots that are traced back to their donors and their corrupt donations platform, ACT Blue.
Now that Elon Musk has gone, their street muscle has moved from torching Tesla dealerships to trying to block deportations.
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Dems pick losing battle
Their poster boy is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the illegal alien gangbanger they tried to repackage as harmless 'Maryland Man' and transform into their latest George Floyd martyr. Too bad.
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Their lawfare might have gotten him un-deported from El Salvador, and back on US soil. But now we see more clearly who he is, and the Trump administration's decision to deport him looks even more justified. The Department of Justice has charged him with human trafficking of thousands of illegal aliens, including children and MS-13 gang members. Federal prosectors allege he is an MS-13 member, too, and 'participated in violent crime, including murder,' trafficked children, firearms, and narcotics and 'abused' women under his control.
Attorney General Pam Bondi outlined disturbing additional allegations last week which are being investigated, that he 'solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor [and] played a role in the murder of a rival gang member's mother. [He] is a danger to our community.
This is the ditch Democrats have chosen to die in.
As federal agents were being attacked by violent mobs throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, slashing tires and setting vehicles alight, Mayor Karen Bass sided with the criminals: 'As mayor of a proud city of immigrants . . . I am deeply angered' by ICE officers' actions, she said in a statement. 'We will not stand for this.'
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Presumably under her orders, the LAPD waited two hours before assisting beleaguered ICE agents Friday, sending the now-familiar Democrat signal to the rioters to do their worst. We saw the same in 2020, from Kenosha to Seattle.
So President Trump mobilized the National Guard the next day.
'These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED,' he said on Truth Social.
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'If Governor Gavin Newscum [Newsom], of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!'
Trump has learned the lesson of 2020 and no longer has to deal with turncoats in his own administration. This time, despite the complicity of California authorities, the rioters are facing overwhelming resistance. Trump is not about to let the city that is due to host the FIFA World Cup next year and the 2028 Olympics descend into chaos.
He has 'zero tolerance' border czar Tom Homan and unflinching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem backing him. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is prepared to bring in Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton. Treasurer Secretary Scott Bessent pounded Newsom on Sunday, accusing him of 'threatening to commit criminal tax evasion' and warning of dire consequences.
The Trump Cabinet is united and energized.
Don presses forward
'You're going to see some very strong law and order,' the president told reporters Sunday en route to Camp David to meet with generals and admirals about 'a very major subject.'
The riots were top of mind: 'If we see danger to our country and to our citizens, we'll be very, very strong in terms of law and order.'
He was particularly disgusted by the tactic of protesters spitting in the face of federal officers. 'I have a little statement: 'They spit, we hit.' . . . Nobody's going to spit on our police officers. Nobody's going to spit on our military, which they do as a common thing. They get up and they start spitting in their face. That happens, they get hit very hard . . . We're going to have troops everywhere. We're not going to let our country get torn apart.'
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He also warned, 'If officials stand in the way of law and order . . . they will face charges.'
Law and order is what voters chose in November, and their good sense has been vindicated ever since.
Now, a majority of Americans think the country is on the right track for the first time in Rasmussen polling history. Under Biden, in November 2024, the numbers were reversed. Only 26% said the country was on the right track, while 63% said wrong track.
Trump is moving ahead relentlessly, dragging in investment trillions, trying to end two wars, bullying and schmoozing foreign leaders, bending Congress to his will, bulldozing every obstacle in his path, including the unfortunate Musk, while enthusiastically planning a new White House ballroom.
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Despite the pace of change, his job approval is as high or higher than most of his predecessors at the same point.
A clue to why Trump's popularity is defying gravity comes from a fly-on-the-wall documentary series, 'Art of the Surge,' about his historic return to the White House. It's now in its second season and has been snapped up by Fox Nation, which began streaming it Wednesday night. The project has been a labor of love for Tucker Carlson's former longtime producing partner, Justin Wells, who has been shadowing Trump for almost a year.
From the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt to the opening scene of Season Two, in which Trump learns how to cook French fries at McDonald's, Wells secured historic behind-the-scenes access that no candidate, let alone a president, has ever granted. But Trump is an open book, the most accessible president in history.
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The result might have been disastrous for his image, but he is such a showman and so good at relating to people that even the most Trump-deranged viewer would have to grudgingly admit he has charisma.
And that is the problem for Democrats. They have no ideas except to keep demonizing Trump, and the country has stopped listening.
