Trump's Latest Big Lie

Trump’s latest big lie—that Los Angeles had become a war zone, awash with violence—was the basis for unnecessarily and unconstitutionally deploying both the National Guard and the U.S. Marines. Indeed, violence increased after Trump’s provocation threw gasoline on the fire.

Remember before the election, when Trump vowed to use the military to attack the “enemy within”? Given such declarations, one can only assume that, frustrated that mass deportation was lagging, the Trump crew began to stage violent, indiscriminate raids with masked immigration enforcement agents.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Stephen Miller held an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) meeting in late May. “The message was clear: The president, who promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, wasn’t pleased. The agency had better step it up.” 

He was not going after violent criminals; rather, he wanted to raise their numbers while instilling the fear of God into communities.

Well, Miller got what he wanted. “Federal agents make warrantless arrests. Masked agents take people into custody without identifying themselves. Plainclothes agents in at least a dozen cities have arrested migrants who showed up to their court hearings. And across the U.S., people suspected of being in the country illegally are disappearing into the federal detention system without notice to families or lawyers, according to attorneys, witnesses and officials.”

In Los Angeles, however, multiple violent raids did not immediately trigger the sort of confrontation the White House longed to have. “To hear our national leaders tell it, Los Angeles is in chaos and our governor and mayor are out to lunch with the police, blissfully ignoring reality as the city burns,” Anita Chabria wrote last Sunday from the city. “The only problem, of course, is that Los Angeles is not in chaos on this particular sunny Sunday and the vast majority of Angelenos are just trying to enjoy the weekend without becoming a federal prisoner.”

How to square the circle between Trump yearning for violence and the real situation? Lie. And lie. And lie some more. 

Trump hit the panic button, declared the situation out of control, and in deploying not just National Guards but Marines, sure enough, matters escalated. “The Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said that officials decided to institute a curfew because protests have grown more violent throughout the week: There were 27 arrests on Saturday, 40 on Sunday, 114 on Monday and nearly 200 so far [Tuesday],” the New York Times reported.

Jennifer Schultze reported on the gap between media sensationalism and facts on the ground. “I haven’t been able to find a single local LA news outlet that agrees with the ‘riot’ characterization. Reporters describe what they see as violence, unrest or protest.” She continued, “[Trump’s] even calling it an insurrection. It’s not. This isn’t just about media bias anymore.” 

Trump’s lies, not reality, provide the pretext to escalate violence.

In a statement on his website, Gov. Gavin Newsom made the same point: “On Saturday, there were 250+ protesters pre-National Guard deployment. On Sunday, following the President’s illegal National Guard Deployment, the protesters grew to over 3,000. The military’s presence is inviting and incentivizing demonstrations.”

In short, Trump fulfilled his longstanding desire “to deploy federal force to blue places for many purposes,” as Ron Brownstein explained. “His order authorizes it nationwide. And he’s sending force to LA as he’s trying to cut federal funds from blue states/cities unless they adopt red state cultural policies.” 

Criticism and resistance to his policies triggered the confrontation. Trump has sought to use “any means available against states and cities that resist him—just as he has taken a series of unprecedented moves to punish prominent universities and prestigious law firms.”

The biggest “tell” that Trump created the circumstances to justify militarization of the city? He recited no factual basis for issuing his sweeping memorandum. That is because Los Angeles was generally calm until Trump sent in troops.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s complaint confirmed there was no “rebellion” or failure to enforce the law: State and local law enforcement agencies have responded to such actions, and Governor Newsom and other state and local officials have unequivocally condemned such conduct and called for the prosecution of such law-breaking.

At no point in the past three days has there been a rebellion or an insurrection. Nor have these protests risen to the level of protests or riots that Los Angeles and other major cities have seen at points in the past, including in recent years.

By Tuesday night, as Trump’s intervention heightened tensions, Mayor Karen Bass put in effect a curfew for a few downtown blocks. Again, whatever violence occurred was met with appropriate local law enforcement.

Meanwhile, in a streamed speech, Newsom hammered Trump:

“Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived. He’s taking a wrecking ball to our Founding Fathers’ historic project.”

“Trump, he’s not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as it serves him. What more evidence do we need than January 6th?” He went on to critique Trump’s “vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done in the past.” In closing, he cautioned, “The rule of law has increasingly given way to the rule of Don.”

Earlier in the day, Trump showed his hand from the Oval Office, vowing to come down with “very heavy force” against anyone who protested (not rioted) against his big, ugly militaristic parade. Trump is in full rage-mode, deploying more unneeded troops (even as many already deployed are not on the streets) while issuing laughable threats. As New Republic’s Greg Sargent wrote,

“Trump is raging at Newsom—and demanding our applause for putting down this ‘rebellion’—not because he’s fearsome and strong, but because his watch-me-play-fascist-on-TV routine is self-evident overkill, voters suspect the military is not needed here, and it’s all making him appear simultaneously tyrannical and incompetent.”

On Thursday, a federal court will hear a motion for a temporary restraining order to restrict troops’ activities so as not to violate the Posse Comitatus law prohibiting use of the military for law enforcement functions. 

Regardless of court rulings, we should all understand that Trump has gone to war against citizens who are exercising their First Amendment rights. This is what tyrants do. If we allow this to stand, Trump’s effort to turn America into a police state will only accelerate.

-Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian