Trump has zero credibility on the LA protests, but that may not matter

Washington: “These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists,” US President Donald Trump said of people clashing with police on the streets of Los Angeles. “They should be in jail.”

Trump may have a point about some of the more extreme elements that have joined the protests in America’s second-largest city to smash windows, loot and set cars on fire.

But it’s hard to take him seriously – indeed, it’s hard to afford him any credibility at all – when this is the same man who described January 6, 2021 as “a day of love” and just months ago pardoned and celebrated those who had stormed the US Capitol in his name.

Pro-Trump supporters riot outside the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.Credit: AP

In LA, a relatively small group of protesters, demonstrators, rioters – whatever you want to call them – are copping the brunt of law enforcement and even the US military. In DC, Trump circumvented the legal system to set them free, even after some were convicted of seditious conspiracy, and lionised them as hard-done-by patriots.

We may not be surprised by such blatant hypocrisy, but it is still striking to see it manifest so clearly, so obviously.

No wonder the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is so incensed by the treatment doled out to protesters in his state – even those whose behaviour he condemns.

Liberal California is a favourite and familiar punching bag for Trump. During last year’s campaign, and even in the middle of January’s deadly bushfires, he threatened to withhold aid from the state if Newsom didn’t bow to his demands on water policy.

Every authoritarian regime needs enemies. And it’s difficult to get away from the feeling that Trump is making an example of California as he presses on with the next phase of his mass deportation plan, and seeks to keep the domestic focus on immigration, and law and order.

Newsom, a potential presidential candidate, makes for a fine villain in MAGA world, and some of California’s protesters play their part capably too, by draping themselves in Mexican flags, graffitiing buildings and screaming profanities into megaphones.

Trump’s allies and the White House have wasted no time broadcasting footage of such encounters on social media, and asserting it is the type of unruly, thuggish and even criminal behaviour that Democrats endorse.

You can rest assured that if Newsom does run for president in 2028, Republicans will wheel out these images and say it’s the America he wants.

And there will be many Americans, including Californians, who nod their heads. Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is one of the few policy areas where most Americans think he is doing a good job: they will have little sympathy for people draped in a foreign flag blocking traffic and fighting with cops in downtown LA.

The administration also seems determined to escalate its response to the incident despite Trump saying on Tuesday (AEST) that the situation had calmed down significantly. An hour later, the US Marines began to mobilise, and Trump moved to double the number of California National Guard troops deployed to LA.

Notably, that’s a step Trump didn’t take in 2020 to quash Black Lives Matter protests after the police killing of George Floyd. Back then, he asked for governors’ co-operation but would not overrule them to federalise and mobilise the Guard himself.

It tells us once again that Trump 2.0 is a different beast, one more emboldened to strike hard and fast – especially on immigration, where the administration believes it has broad public support.

Note, too, that Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, who is arguably the mastermind of the administration’s immigration policies, is using this moment to mount an existential argument against mass migration – something the US was built on.

“Los Angeles is all the proof you need that mass migration unravels societies,” Miller said. “You can have all the other plans and budgets you want. If you don’t fix migration, then nothing else can be fixed – or saved.”

This is no longer just about kicking out illegal immigrants. It is a war – and they have not hesitated to dispatch the troops.

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