Pointless and illegal military operations fail to intimidate
On June 7th, President Donald Trump deployed 4,100 members of the California National Guard to Los Angeles to quell demonstrators protesting raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The troops, usually commanded by California Governor Gavin Newsom, reacted with hostility to peaceful demonstrations and violated major civilian protection laws. Although the Trump Administration intended this contentious deployment to intimidate and provoke Democratic cities, it represents an empty threat, and local governments should not be concerned about the National Guard deployment in their cities.
Trump is a long-standing supporter of spectacles of force to intimidate rivals and quell protests. In 2019, he touted his military power during a 4th of July parade-turned-campaign rally; in 2020, Trump threatened to deploy the National Guard to shut down peaceful demonstrations protesting the murder of George Floyd by a police officer; just this year, he deployed thousands of troops to patrol the democratic cities of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Portland. On June 7th, the National Guard clashed with nonviolent demonstrators protesting recent ICE raids. Soldiers and police alike threw flash-bang grenades and attacked civilians with tear gas and pepper spray, resulting in severe injury and property damage. One of Trump’s more notable shows of force was the July 7th descent of armed federal agents on MacArthur Park, a public park in Los Angeles’s Westlake neighborhood. The soldiers performed military drills and intimidated already apprehensive civilians in the area. The administration gave no reason for the presence of troops in the park and refused to retract the soldiers, despite pleas by local officials. According to LA mayor Karen Bass, operations in the park were “a political agenda of provoking fear and terror.” The Trump administration hopes that these shows of force will intimidate civilians and liberal officials into submission to Trump’s desires.
Not only does Trump wish to intimidate citizens of Los Angeles, but he also parked the National Guard in LA to provoke protests and violence from other parts of the country, searching for an excuse to deploy troops to other Democratic cities. In response to a post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the June 7th attacks on protesters, California Governor Gavin Newsom responded that “The Trump administration sow[ed] chaos so they [could] have the excuse to escalate.” Indicating the peaceful nature of the protests before military involvement, Newsom imparted that the troops’ hostility was unnecessary and exacerbated the violence that the National Guard claimed to stop. Trump has since deployed troops in Washington, D.C. and threatened to send the National Guard to Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Boston, Memphis, and other blue cities, once again under the pretense of lowering violent crime rates in these regions. Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker stated in a press conference that “the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago.” By bringing violence and chaos to majorly democratic cities and blaming it on protesters, Trump has created such an excuse.
As terrifying as military actions have been in Los Angeles, the National Guard does not legally pose a threat to other liberal cities. Although troops have been hostile, federal judge Charles R. Breyer ruled that their actions in Los Angeles violated the “Posse Comitatus Act,” a law restricting the use of the national military for the purposes of domestic law enforcement. Operations in Los Angeles, such as patrolling MacArthur Park, controlling and combating protesters, and creating blockades, are usually relegated to civil police, meaning that it was illegal for the National Guard to perform these tasks. With this ruling, Democratic cities can now successfully sue the Trump Administration in the event of a deployment. It is important to note that the National Guard is only allowed to be deployed to cities under specific circumstances, including civil unrest. To circumnavigate this law, the Trump administration framed protests in Los Angeles as violent riots even though they were peaceful. But in other cities, under different civil circumstances, Trump may not be able to use the excuse of ‘civil unrest’ to deploy troops. Even in cities where troops can be deployed, soldiers cannot take the same actions they did in Los Angeles because those actions have now been ruled illegal.
Although the Trump administration hopes to provoke and intimidate liberal citizens into submission to his whims, his efforts will likely be unsuccessful. Thanks to new court rulings, Trump’s actions are proven to be illegal, and liberal cities can protect themselves from the threat of troop deployment. However, citizens and local governments should stay vigilant: in his actions in Los Angeles, Trump has proved that he is willing to break federal laws to satisfy his wants and needs.
