For those concerned about Donald Trump and his authoritarian-style agenda, the last few days have been, at a minimum, unsettling. On the East Coast, for example, military vehicles, including tanks, are getting into position to roll down the streets of the nation’s capital, for a June 14 military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army — which also happens to coincide with Donald Trump’s birthday.
And then, of course, there’s the West Coast. As The Associated Press summarized:
Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.
In recent months, federal officials, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, have engaged in overly aggressive and legally dubious tactics while executing the White House’s deportation agenda, sparking a predictable public backlash. As NBC News reported, it was against this backdrop that ICE officers on Friday carried out raids in three locations across the city, where dozens of people were taken into custody.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the raids, calling them “chaotic federal sweeps” that aimed to fill an “arbitrary arrest quota,” and protests soon followed.
It was the next day when Trump announced that he was calling up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell the protests, ignoring the objections of the state’s Democratic governor. As The New York Times reported, “Governors almost always control the deployment of National Guard troops in their states,” and this marked “the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard force without a request from that state’s governor.” (Sixty years ago, it was Lyndon B. Johnson who sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators.)
Last year, while serving as South Dakota’s Republican governor, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that if Joe Biden tried to federalize National Guard troops, it would constitute a “direct attack on states’ rights” and spark a “war” between Washington and GOP-led state governments. Over the weekend, however, Noem took the opposite position.
Around the same time, by way of his social media platform, Trump proceeded to celebrate the “great job” National Guard troops did in Los Angeles before the troops actually arrived, which was bizarre but consistent with the incumbent president’s general approach to reality.
For his part, Newsom — whom Trump keeps describing as “Newscum” because the president has the temperament of an ill-tempered tween — accused Trump of “inciting and provoking violence,” “creating mass chaos,” and “militarizing cities.” The California Democrat added, “These are the acts of a dictator, not a president.”
After Tom Homan, the administration’s “border czar,” raised the prospect of arresting state and local elected officials, Newsom effectively dared Homan to try. Asked Monday if Homan should arrest the California governor, Trump said, “I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”
"I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great" — Trump endorses the arrest of Gov. Gavin Newsom pic.twitter.com/M9b4s1BkOJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 9, 2025
There’s no reason to believe that conditions will improve quickly. Newsom has formally asked Trump to pull Guard troops, an appeal that will likely be ignored. The governor suggested in a social media post on Monday that his state would sue the Trump administration for deploying the state’s National Guard.
In the meantime, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has suggested he’s prepared to deploy U.S. Marines onto American streets — a point that was echoed by U.S. Northern Command.
Asked whether Americans might soon see active-duty Marines on the streets of Los Angeles, House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC News that he doesn’t believe such a step would be “heavy-handed.”
Soon after, the president told reporters that he’s meeting with U.S. military leaders, and after publishing a statement about Los Angeles having been “invaded and occupied,” there was renewed speculation about whether the Republican might be preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act. Indeed, Trump also wrote that he was directing Noem, Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi, “to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.” Shortly after midnight, on Monday morning, Trump also wrote online, “Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” He similarly told reporters that he expects to have U.S. troops “everywhere.” Trump: Well, we're going to have troops everywhere. Reporter: What’s the bar for sending in the Marines Trump: The bar is what I think it is. In his latest New York Times column, David French concluded, “It’s too early to declare a constitutional crisis, and in any case, debating the label we attach to any new event can distract us from focusing fully on the event itself. But each new day brings us fresh evidence of a deeply troubling trend: America is no longer a stable country, and it is growing less stable by the day.” A few weeks before Election Day 2024, as he referred to Americans he disagreed with as “scum,” then-candidate Trump talked about the possible deployment of the National Guard or the U.S. military on American soil to be used against those he labeled “the enemy from within.” At the time, it led many to wonder whether Trump, if returned to power, might be willing to use — or in this case, abuse — military resources to stifle dissent. Republicans characterized such concerns as hysterical and paranoid. Eight months later, those fears are suddenly relevant anew. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
