Bad Look
When racial justice protests roiled cities across America at the depths of the pandemic, President Trump, then in his first term, demonstrated restraint. Threats to invoke the Insurrection Act and to federalize the National Guard never materialized.
This time, it took less than 24 hours of isolated protests in Los Angeles County for Trump, more aggressive than ever in his use of executive power, to issue a historic order.
“The federal government will step in and solve the problem,” he said on social media Saturday night, issuing executive action not seen since civil unrest gripped the nation in the 1960s.
. . . Local officials were clear that they did not want, or need, federal assistance. And they are concerned that Trump’s heavy-handed response risks escalating what was a series of isolated, heated clashes consisting of a few hundred people into a larger law enforcement challenge that could roil the city.
"We tried to talk to the administration and tell them that there was absolutely no need to have troops on the ground here in Los Angeles — the protests that happened last night in L.A. were relatively minor, about 100 protesters," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. "So this is unnecessary."
The local authorities were nevertheless reluctant to act when they might have managed the problem:
Leaked reports have surfaced, revealing that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ordered the LAPD to stand down during riots, overriding emergency protocols and blocking police from assisting federal officers. The allegations suggest that Bass ignored calls for reinforcements, preventing the LAPD’s Incident Commander from deploying aid to overwhelmed federal agents.
The reports detail a direct intervention by Bass, bypassing established emergency response procedures. Instead of allowing law enforcement to act, she allegedly called the Incident Commander for a briefing, then instructed the Chief of Police on how to proceed, effectively taking control of operations. This move violated the City’s Emergency Operations Plan and National Incident Management System protocols, disrupting the chain of command.
Federal officers were left without critical support. The Department of Homeland Security and FBI reportedly requested LAPD assistance as riots escalated, but the police force remained idle, waiting for direction. The delay put federal personnel at risk, forcing them to handle violent unrest without backup.
In a press conference yestrersday evening, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell backtracked on the official line:
“It’s an interesting question because I would have said that … we could handle this. I believe that we would have gone through a number of steps before we’d have deployed the National Guard or requested deployment of the National Guard,” McDonnell said. “We would normally go to 50 percent deployment to handle radio calls and do the business of policing, and everybody else would be focused on the initial problem. Beyond that, then we would request, through the sheriff, mutual aid, and that would bring in members of the 44 other police departments in LA County, as well as the sheriff’s office.”
When asked again if the National Guard was needed, McDonnell said the riots have “gotten out of control” and noted that “looking at the violence tonight,” he thought his department may need to “make a reassessment.”
The problem seems to be that Mayor Bass appears to have ordered the LAPD not to undertake those preliminary steps, giving Trump no choice but to order the National Guard in himself. I've looked at Trump's negotiating strategy before, citing a business-school analysis of his strengths:
Trump’s orientation is distinctly more coercive: “Learn your adversary’s strengths and weaknesses: Find out who your adversaries are, what resources they have, who is backing them, how much they want, why they want it, how much they will settle for, and how much they will pay or insist on receiving”. Trump does not empathize with his opponents; he sizes them up.
As much as Trump watches others, he is aware of being watched: “life is a performance art,” he wrote Think Like a Champion. “Understand that as a performer, you have a responsibility to your audience to perform to the best of your ability”. Indeed, as he walked down the stairs of the U.S. Capitol on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, President‐elect Trump paused to look directly into the camera, prompting television commentator George Stephanopoulos to exclaim: “He smiles for the camera! He is always aware … [that] the cameras are every step of the way”.
Trump has thought this through. The Newark confrontation a couple of weeks ago with Mayor Baraka and Rep LaMonica McIver set the paradigm: get politicians playing to a local audience to push the limits protesting ICE enforcement actions, and play to the national audience in defending ICE and, if necessary, take a very public national role in defending the enforcement. He understood that, just like Mayor Baraka and Rep McIver, Gov Newsom and Mayor Bass would be at best passive-aggressive in resisting ICE enforcement in LA, setting the stage for his ordering the National Guard in. The California politicians acted predictably:
Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters on Sunday strongly rebuked the president's decision to deploy the National Guard, calling the situation "outrageous" and "horrible" and adding that she believes Mr. Trump is using L.A., a sanctuary city, as an example.
"He's using deportation as a way to enhance his position with all those right-wingers out there who do not want this country to be a country of people coming from other places," the Democrat told a reporter outside the Metropolitan Detention Center. "I think he's up to creating martial law."
CNN fully understands Trump's strategy:
The National Guard deployment clearly risks politicizing the military. But it’s a political no-brainer for the White House.
Images of troops in combat gear, and the administration’s vows to enforce order if local leaders won’t, boost Trump’s tough-guy image, which is an important factor in his appeal to his supporters. It bolsters Republican claims of fecklessness in liberal-run cities that have been plagued by homelessness and crime.
By sending troops in over Newsom’s head, Trump escalates his feud with the governor, who is one of the most prominent national Democrats at a time when Trump is threatening to pull federal funding to the state. This may also serve as a warning to other blue states that they could see the militarization of the deportation program if they don’t cooperate.
Rasmussen put up a post on X saying that overnight polling as of Sunday had Trump's approval at 54.49%. UPDATE: Chris Cilizza, formerly of the Washington Post and CNN but now claims to be "independent", agrees with this view 100%: