Gavin Newsom makes Trump look the reasonable one
The US President has the habit of turning rational, credible people into raving zealots and California’s governor is no exception.
In life, it pays to have the right friends. In politics, having the right enemies is even better. Part of Donald Trump’s success in the past decade has been an implausible amount of luck in picking his adversaries.
Hillary Clinton was probably the only Democrat in the country who could have lost to him in 2016. Joe Biden should have put Trump’s career to rest in 2020 but then stubbornly refused to cede to the ravages of age and bowed out much too late in 2024. Kamala Harris was an empty vessel. Over-eager prosecutors, Inspector Javert-like, pursued cases against Trump for years that were flimsy at best, persecutory at worst, and pulled off the improbable feat of turning him into a sympathetic figure. A news media widely despised by much of the country tried repeatedly to tear him down with fanciful stories about Russian collusion and opinion-disguised-as-reporting about his plans to turn America into a fascist dictatorship.
Trump is a flawed man who says and does more than his share of bad and stupid things. But there is something about him that attracts the worst critics and turns once rational, credible people into foaming-at-the-mouth zealots in a way that makes him seem like the reasonable one.
Now, he’s done it again. To go by most of the media coverage, including in Britain, the scenes on the streets of Los Angeles in the past week are an ominous indicator of the slide into police state authoritarianism they have been warning us about since Trump was re-elected. His deployment of federal troops to put down “largely peaceful” protests, as the BBC described scenes of burning cars and airborne paving stones, against the deportation of illegal immigrants is straight out of the dictator’s playbook. But to most reasonable observers of this drama, I strongly suspect Trump and the feds are not the bad guys.
If most Americans had to choose between Donald Trump and a collective of illegal immigrants, violent, far-left protesters and a Democratic party that, in the one-party state of California, has managed to turn its biggest city into a dysfunctional, high-tax, soft-on-crime, urban dystopia of homeless encampments - a hellscape for many Americans and a haven for people with no right to be there - it wouldn’t be much of a contest.
Understand the context here. For most of the four years of the Biden administration, the US had an open-door policy on immigration. If you could muster the resources and the energy to get to the Mexican border from just about anywhere in the world, you were in. No need to fuss with all that tedious paperwork of visa applications, expensive immigration lawyers, long waits to get the right visa status. That stuff was for suckers. At least 10 million, perhaps as many as 15 million foreigners made the hike.
To be sure, the vast majority of these are not bad people. Who, after all, given the chance and the nod-and-a-wink invitation from the Biden administration, wouldn’t seize a chance at the American dream? But America’s cities weren’t equipped for the inflow. Somehow their Democratic rulers welcomed it all the same; opening up hotel rooms, places in already crowded schools and hospital emergency rooms. California - LA especially - has been ground zero for this darkening urban nightmare. As a “sanctuary city” it actively encourages illegal immigrants to come and settle, and actively prevents the federal government from doing its job to remove them.
Between late 2022 and the start of this year, California’s prisons refused to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to take custody of more than 13,000 illegal aliens incarcerated there. Trump was elected to stop this mayhem, and illegal entries across the border have more or less completely dried up. The bigger task - popular with most Americans - is the process of removing those who should not be here.
When ICE officers showed up in LA last week to arrest and remove a small fraction of the aliens, they were greeted with protests that quickly turned violent. The city’s police chief said his officers were “overwhelmed” by the violence. But Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, refused to call for reinforcement by the National Guard, so Trump sent them in himself, and mobilised a detachment of marines for good measure. Despite claims by reporters, and a lawsuit from Newsom, Trump’s actions are perfectly lawful. In US law, immigration enforcement is the sole responsibility of the federal government.
No doubt Trump enjoys the opportunity to pose as the tough-on-crime leader with a firm hand. But who could blame him? He has been claiming for months, with apparent hyperbole, that them illegal immigrant crisis amounts to a foreign invasion of America. This is not just rhetorical fire, but enables him to invoke certain emergency laws. So what do his enemies do? They throw rocks and commercial-grade fireworks at police, smash doors and windows, summon self-driving taxis to set fire to them, and do it all while waving the Mexican - yes, the Mexican - flag.
A few Democrats seem to understand the law - and the politics. John Fetterman, a senator from Pennsylvania, condemned the protests. “This is anarchy and true chaos,” he posted on X. “My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings and assaulting law enforcement.”
I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 10, 2025
This is anarchy and true chaos.
My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/pPYbvP6xR0
But most of them are playing to form. On Tuesday night, all solemn and statesmanlike, Newsom went on statewide TV to denounce Trump. He clearly sees this moment as his chance to turn himself into the president’s political nemesis. But given the causes he champions - the right of extremists to break the law, defile their cities, terrify residents and violently defend foreigners’ entitlement to special treatment - who wouldn’t bet he’ll go the same way as the rest of Trump’s enemies?
The Times