Rita Panahi: Violent scenes in Los Angeles only help Trump’s cause

Donald Trump could not have hoped for a better advertisement for his deportation program than the out-of-control violence in Los Angeles,with rioters attacking police, destroying property, burning the American flag and behaving like lawless thugs.

Donald Trump could not have hoped for a better advertisement for his deportation program than the violent scenes in Los Angeles with rioters attacking law enforcement, destroying public and private property, burning the American flag and generally behaving like lawless thugs.

The violence became so out-of-control that the Democrat mayor of LA Karen Bass went from standing with the protesters to imposing a curfew on them.

President Trump’s immigration policies already enjoyed widespread support but the Democrats appear determined to destroy whatever political capital they have left by siding with illegal immigrants and American-hating far-Left agitators.

Polling released this week shows Democrats in Congress recorded a 21 per cent approval rating, with the party rudderless and increasingly lurching to the radical Left led by the likes of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett.

LAPD officers on horseback clash with protesters gathered near Los Angeles City Hall. Picture: Ronaldo Schemidt

Among the most comical moments of the week were the Democrats imploring Americans not to believe their lying eyes and instead trust the narrative that these protests were lawful and perfectly peaceful.

“Don’t miss the point, y’all,” said Veteran Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

“Don’t think that because somehow because they called out the National Guard, there was violence. There was no violence. I was on the street, I know.”

It’s reminiscent of what the Democrats, and their propaganda arm in the media, did for four years pretending that Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline was fake news; a Right wing conspiracy theory without merit.

In the past five years attitudes to illegal immigration and deportations have changed dramatically, particularly among migrant voters. This week CNN took a short break from its relentless anti-Trump coverage to report on data across multiple polls showing that Americans are overwhelmingly in favour of deporting every illegal immigrant, not just those convicted of criminal offences.

And, the biggest group gravitating to Trump over the issue are immigrants in the country legally.

That will no doubt shock political pundits who have from the start misunderstood the Trump phenomenon and convinced themselves it was a manifestation of ‘white supremacy’ rather than a broad coalition that has seen the Republicans enjoy new found support among migrants particularly Hispanic and Asian voters.

And, key to that surge in support is Trump’s economic, cultural and immigration policies.

Among all immigrant voters the shift to Trump on the issue of immigration policy has been an astonishing 40 per cent in just five years; from negative 32 per cent in 2020 to positive 8 per cent in 2025.

CNN’s polling expert, host of Margins of Errors, Harry Enten explained how Trump has taken an issue where Republicans trailed the Democrats by a huge margin and turned it into a winner.

“Republicans now lead on this issue,” Enten said. “More so than any other group, the group of voters who became more hawkish on immigration were immigrants themselves who are registered to vote in this country.”

The biggest group gravitating to Trump over the issue are immigrants in the country legally. Picture: Allison Robbert

For Trump and the Republicans that has translated into votes and a solid new voter base. “There’s no block of voters that shifted more to the right from 2020 to 2024 than immigrant voters and Donald Trump is some surveys won that vote, on average (across all polls) its equal … immigrant voters have increasingly liked Donald Trump and have increasingly moved to the Right,” Enten said this week.

When looking at all voters the news is just as positive for Trump whose support has always been under-reported in polls. This week polls by CBS, CNN and IPSOS showed that he enjoyed a comfortable lead, up to 19 per cent, over the Democrats on immigration.

“No matter what poll you look at, no matter which way you cut it, the American public is with the Republicans, the American public is with Donald Trump and to a much greater extent than they were in term number one,” Enten explained on CNN.

The out-of-touch hysterics of the celebrity class from the demented ladies of The View to Kim Kardashian to Jimmy Kimmel has only helped Trump’s cause further.

The reality is that the Biden administration’s illegal immigration crisis saw more than two million immigrants flood into the country illegally every single year.

Trump managed to fix that crisis in a matter of weeks but deporting the millions in America illegally will prove to be a much harder task.

The president has a clear mandate to deport every illegal immigrant and the more the Democrats resist, the more they harm their standing among voters.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist