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Is Donald Trump’s Deployment of National Guard in Los Angeles a “Dress Rehearsal” for What’s to Come?

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Was Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles to quell demonstrations a dress rehearsal for what’s to come in other states or nationally?

The Atlantic’s David Frum thinks it is. And he’s not alone in this fear. If so it’d be another longtime-prediction by those accused of having Trump Derangement Syndrome having come true. There are increasing indications the administration will expand it’s use of the military domestically. 500 marines are reportedly poised to go into Los Angeles if needed to help squelch protests sparked by immigration enforcement raids.

In the case of California and Los Angeles, neither California’s governor nor Los Angeles’ mayor called for the National Guard to be deployed. Some believe Trump did it because it’s a political domination move against Democratic Government Gavin Newsome, an outspoken Trump critic who many believe is eyeing the White House. Others say he did it as a way to get all the pieces in place for major anti-Trump demonstrations planned for June 24, a day after a Trump-ordered $45 million military parade that will celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary – which is also Trump’s 79th birthday.

Trump’s critics feel this may be the opening salvo by Trump to ultimately delay the 2026 mid-term elections and control voting by eventually using the Insurrection Act.

The Guardian:

The White House said Trump was sending in the guardsmen to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in California. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said the move was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions”. Experts said it was the first time in 60 years that a president has activated a state’s national guard – a reserve military – without a request from its governor.

Critics also saw it as an authoritarian flex by a strongman president who has relentlessly trampled norms and burst through guardrails. Since returning to office in January, Trump has sought to crush dissent at cultural institutions, law firms, media companies and universities. Many believed it was only a matter of time before he took the fight to the streets.

….The protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids present him with an antagonist that can be used as a focal point for anger, hatred and fear, ensuring that dissent is redirected away from the government and toward “an enemy within”. Trump is the master of distraction and, with the help of lurid rightwing media clips, wants to divert attention from policy failures and his ugly feud with Elon Musk.

Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, tweeted: “Important to remember that Trump isn’t trying to heal or keep the peace. He is looking to inflame and divide. His movement doesn’t believe in democracy or protest – and if they get a chance to end the rule of law they will take it. None of this is on the level.”

Trump plans to meet with military leaders at Camp David:

President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he’s heading to Camp David to meet with military and other leaders, shortly before he posted a message online calling Los Angeles protesters an “insurrectionist mob.”

During a gaggle before boarding Air Force One, Trump would not rule out invoking the Insurrection Act, which could allow the military to be deployed domestically, but he suggested the protests against immigration raids were not yet an insurrection.

“We’re going up to Camp David; we have meetings with various people about very major subjects,” Trump said.

“We’ll be meeting with a lot of people, including generals, as you know, and admirals.”

The New York Times’ Tyler Pager reports that this is the kind of fight has all the political components that Trump seeks:

It is the fight President Trump had been waiting for, a showdown with a top political rival in a deep blue state over an issue core to his political agenda.

In bypassing the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, to call in the National Guard to quell protests in the Los Angeles area over his administration’s efforts to deport more migrants, Mr. Trump is now pushing the boundaries of presidential authority and stoking criticism that he is inflaming the situation for political gain.

Local and state authorities had not sought help in dealing with the scattered protests that erupted after an immigration raid on Friday in the garment district. But Mr. Trump and his top aides leaned into the confrontation with California leaders on Sunday, portraying the demonstrations as an existential threat to the country — setting in motion an aggressive federal response that in turn sparked new protests across the city.

As more demonstrators took to the streets, the president wrote on social media that Los Angeles was being “invaded and occupied” by “violent, insurrectionist mobs,” and directed three of his top cabinet officials to take any actions necessary to “liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.”

And:

“Nobody’s going to spit on our police officers. Nobody’s going to spit on our military,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he headed to Camp David on Sunday, although it was unclear whether any such incidents had occurred. “That happens, they get hit very hard.”

The president declined to say whether he planned to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which allows for the use of federal troops on domestic soil to quell a rebellion. But either way, he added, “we’re going to have troops everywhere.”

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, posted on social media that “this is a fight to save civilization.”

Mr. Trump’s decision to deploy at least 2,000 members of the California National Guard is the latest example of his willingness and, at times, an eagerness to shatter norms to pursue his political goals and bypass limits on presidential power. The last president to send in the National Guard for a domestic operation without a request from the state’s governor, Lyndon B. Johnson, did so in 1965, to protect civil rights demonstrators in Alabama.

On Sunday Trump said: “”We are going to have troops everywhere. We are not going to let this happen to our country.”

The New European’s Political Editor James Ball call Trump’s crackdown on L.A. “hypocrisy” and “incredibly dangerous.’ He writes, in part:

But the blazing hypocrisy of Trump and his top officials should stand out, too. One of Trump’s first actions on regaining the presidency in January was pardoning thousands of insurrectionists who participated in a violent invasion of Congress – including those who assaulted police. Now, mere months later, Trump claims to be so outraged by peaceful protest, which is protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution, that he is deploying troops against them.

This risks a full-scale collapse of the USA’s already crumbling political norms. Trump has pardoned his own supporters for violent insurrection even as he deploys armed soldiers against his political opponents. This is the behaviour of dictators, not democratic leaders. It is a sign of a society reaching its breaking point.

It has to be hoped that cooler heads prevail and manage to pull this particular crisis back from the brink. The people who actually make up the National Guard are not fanatics: they signed up to help their nation during crises, not to be a private army for a dictatorial president. California’s government and senior law enforcement officials will be trying to find ways to deploy troops that don’t risk escalating the situation. As always happens when Donald Trump is president, people will be working quietly to try to save America from the man leading it.

Hopefully America’s luck will hold and they will be successful – but as Trump embraces his tyrannical impulses ever more openly, there are fewer and fewer people around him with either the ability or the inclination to hold him back.

The citizens of Los Angeles were protesting against Trump’s unlawful use of the federal agency ICE to deport their friends and neighbours. For that, they are being called rebels against the state, and facing its military force. However the mess Trump has made in LA ends, America surely cannot withstand three and a half more years of this.

Go to the link to read his column in its entirety.

Trump’s plan to use the military to suppress demonstration raises many legal issues.

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