Dem
47
GOP
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In a historic move, Donald Trump has federalized the California National Guard and sent the Guard to Los Angeles to snuff out some small-scale immigration protests and throw several tons of red meat to his base. Neither Mayor Karen Bass nor Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) requested help and both opposed the presence of the Guard. The local police were perfectly capable of handling the situation, but Trump decided that his base would love the spectacle of his taking over a blue city in a blue state and pushing aside the elected Democratic leadership there. After getting the media, law firms, and universities to bow down to him, the next logical step on the way to autocracy was showing state and local officials who is boss in this town. Make no mistake. This action was not about law enforcement, since the LAPD and county sheriff's department could have handled the situation if things got out of hand. It was a raw power play on Trump's part.
Normally, when there are serious riots (and there were none in L.A. this past weekend) the president might ask the governor if he or she needed help. Trump skipped that step because he wanted a PR stunt. It is hard to find any historic precedent for federalizing the National Guard against the wishes of the governor under circumstances like this. The most recent occurrence was in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson did that in Selma, AL, to protect protest marchers because he didn't believe the local police would do it. The Guard was also federalized (with the consent of the governor) in New York during the 1970 postal strike and after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
The unrest began Friday, when ICE began raids in the Westlake District, downtown, and South L.A. ICE requested help from the LAPD, which responded within an hour. At least 118 allegedly undocumented immigrants were arrested. Protesters gathered around the areas where ICE was operating; ICE quickly began using tear gas and flash-bang grenades, a pretty self-evident attempt to escalate the situation and create some photo-ops. Trump and Newsom spoke on Friday for 40 minutes; Newsom opposed the idea of deploying the Guard, saying it would only escalate tensions, which it did, but Trump didn't care what the governor wanted. He had his own plans.
On Saturday, there were protests in the city of Paramount, which is a predominantly Latino enclave within Los Angeles, south of downtown. They spilled over into Compton, where a car was set on fire. Law enforcement shot at the crowd with nonlethal bullets. More demonstrations against ICE were planned for Sunday. Then Newsom sent out this tweet:
Newsom also said that Trump's moves were "the acts of a dictator, not a president." He also said he would file a lawsuit against Trump Monday since the law Trump invoked to federalize the Guard allows federalization only in the event of an invasion or a rebellion, neither of which occurred.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who represents Compton, Inglewood, and Hawthorne, showed up at the protests and pleaded with the Guardsmen not to shoot anyone:
Waters called the deployment of the troops an unnecessary escalation. She said: "Why are they out here with guns? This is an escalation. The president is working to impose martial law." She attempted to talk to someone in command but was turned away.
Republican officials took exactly the opposite tack, starting with Trump, who wrote on his boutique social media site: "If Governor Gavin Newscum, 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!!!" Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem went on Face the Nation yesterday and brought up the riots in Minneapolis after a police officer killed George Floyd: "We are not going to let a repeat of 2020 happen. If you remember it happened in Tim Walz's state, in Minneapolis, and the governor Tim Walz made bad decisions and when [Trump] tried to send our National Guard in to bail him out, he let his city burn for days on end."
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) went on CNN's State of the Union and criticized some protesters for carrying a Mexican flag. Mullin said: "They were literally out there protesting, carrying a foreign flag. That is absolutely insane." CNN's Dana Bash responded: "Carrying a flag is not illegal, as you know." Speaker Mike Johnson said he found nothing "heavy handed" about the administration's approach, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's threat to deploy the Marines to Los Angeles (which is illegal). Johnson said: "One of our core principles is maintaining peace through strength." We are always so deeply impressed by his commitment to Christian values. The staff theologian is off for the weekend, but we're pretty sure "peace through strength" is from the Gospel according to Mark. Or maybe it's Luke. It definitely comes right after the part where Jesus says that an eye for an eye is the only way to go. (V)