SACRAMENTO — President Trump craves consideration and can stoop to any depth to seize it — even pour gasoline on a kindling fireplace in Los Angeles. However this time he unwittingly supplied priceless consideration for an adversary.
As a result of Trump needlessly deployed Nationwide Guard troops and — extra ridiculous, a Marine battalion to L.A. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom was granted a prime-time talking slot on nationwide cable tv to reply.
“We honor their service. We honor their bravery,” Newsom mentioned of the troops. “However we are not looking for our streets militarized by our personal armed forces. Not in L.A. Not in California. Not anyplace … .
“California could also be first — but it surely clearly gained’t finish right here. Different states are subsequent. Democracy is subsequent. Democracy is below assault proper earlier than our eyes. The second we’ve feared has arrived.”
I’m undecided the “democracy is below assault” message has a lot traction, however conserving armed fight forces off our streets should be a salable pitch.
Regardless, governors virtually by no means get nationwide TV time to ship total speeches, at the same time as transient as Newsom’s. You’ve virtually received to be nominated for president. However the publicity-thirsty sitting president supplied the cameras for California’s governor.
Newsom’s sturdy deal with in all probability boosted his inventory throughout the Democrat Occasion and revived dormant hypothesis a couple of 2028 presidential bid.
Not was the Democratic governor taking part in respectful good man and tempering criticism of the Republican president. Now he was standing as much as the bully who loves to make use of California, Newsom and our progressive politics as a punching bag. Trump’s red-state supporters love each swipe at this “left coast” state.
Newsom rose to the event, utilizing his biggest asset: invaluable communication expertise coupled with telegenic seems to be.
He laid out his model of what occurred to show comparatively peaceable protests in opposition to federal immigration raids into harmful road violence. And it’s the proper model by goal accounts.
On Saturday, Newsom mentioned, federal immigration brokers “jumped out of an unmarked van” close to a Dwelling Depot parking zone and “started grabbing folks. A deliberate concentrating on of a closely Latino suburb … . In response, on a regular basis Angelenos” exercised their constitutional proper to protest.
Police had been dispatched to maintain the peace and principally had been profitable, the governor continued. However then tear fuel, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades had been used — by federal brokers, Newsom implied.
Then Trump deployed 2,000 California Nationwide Guard troops “illegally and for no motive,” the governor asserted.
“This brazen abuse of energy by a sitting president infected a flamable scenario … . Anxiousness for households and pals ramped up. Protests began once more … . A number of dozen lawbreakers grew to become violent and harmful.”
Newsom warned: “That type of felony habits won’t be tolerated. Full cease.” And a whole bunch have been arrested.
However he emphasised: “This example was winding down and was concentrated in just some sq. blocks downtown. However that’s not what Donald Trump wished … . He selected theatrics over public security.”
In Trump’s twisted view, if he hadn’t despatched within the Nationwide Guard, “Los Angeles can be fully obliterated.” By no means thoughts that the violence was confined to a couple downtown blocks, a fraction of a metropolis that spreads over 500 sq. miles.
“We are going to liberate Los Angeles and make it free and clear once more,” the president promised.
Veteran Republican strategist Mike Murphy had it proper, telling CNN: “He’s lighting the fireplace as an arsonist, then claiming to be the fireman.”
It jogged my memory of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s manufactured Gulf of Tonkin decision in 1964 that Congress handed, enabling him to vastly escalate U.S. involvement within the Vietnam Warfare. Johnson reported a North Vietnamese assault on U.S. destroyers that many consultants later concluded by no means occurred.
However I believe Trump primarily is obsessive about attracting consideration. He is aware of he’ll get it by being provocative. By no means thoughts the accuracy of his phrases or the knowledge of his actions. Sending within the Marines actually was an eye-opener. So is staging a army parade on his birthday — an abuse of troops for consideration, private glorification and train of his personal energy.
He’ll say something provocative with out considering it by way of: Tariffs someday, suspended the following. He’ll boast of sending San Joaquin Valley water to L.A. for preventing fires when it’s bodily not possible to ship it.
Whereas Trump was taking part in politics with immigrants and L.A. turmoil, a ballot discovering was launched that ought to have happy him.
Californians now not help offering public healthcare for immigrants residing right here illegally, the impartial Public Coverage Institute of California reported. Grownup state residents had been opposed by 58% to 41% in a survey taken earlier than the L.A. bother erupted.
Against this, a PPIC ballot in 2021 discovered that Californians favored offering state healthcare for undocumented immigrants by 66% to 31%.
Polling director Mark Baldassare concluded the general public opposition stems principally from the view that California taxpayers can’t afford the pricey program — not that they agree with Trump’s anti-immigrant demagoguery.
Actually, Newson has proposed paring again the state’s multibillion-dollar program of offering Medi-Cal protection for undocumented immigrants as a result of the state price range has been spewing pink ink.
Given all of the rhetoric in regards to the L.A. protests, the assertion that notably impressed me got here from freshman Assemblyman Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), whose downtown district stretches from Koreatown to Chinatown.
“Rocks thrown at officers, CHP automobiles and Waymo automobiles set on fireplace, arson on the 101 freeway — don’t have anything to do with immigration, justice or the values of our communities,” he mentioned in an announcement Sunday. “These usually are not protesters — they had been agitators. Their actions are reckless, harmful and taking part in into precisely what Trump desires.”
Gonzalez is a liberal former chairman of the L.A. County Democratic Occasion who caught to his level: Hoodlums can’t be tolerated.
And, because of Trump, Newsom was capable of make the same level in regards to the president on nationwide TV: His harmful, self-serving actions can’t be tolerated both.
