Militarizing the country: Trump's new strategy against the opposition
Donald Trump and his MAGA followers were waiting for this moment. California represents everything they hate most. It's a clearly Democratic state, with laws favorable to equality and diversity policies, and it also champions opposition to the president. Protests against the deportation of immigrants—which is being carried out everywhere without ensuring the rights of detainees or respect for human rights—have been the perfect excuse. Without any compelling reason, he ordered the deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles, something unprecedented that hadn't happened in decades. We should go back to 1992, when George W. Bush deployed troops in the city to restore order after the extremely serious disturbances, which left some sixty dead, following the acquittal of police officers who had beaten a young Black man to death. At that time, the situation was serious, and the governor himself had requested help.
This time, not only are the riots incomparably smaller, but the state's governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has not requested them and has openly opposed them. In fact, Newsom has announced that he will file a lawsuit against this order, which he also noted could apply to the rest of the United States, which would clearly militarize the country to impose the president's political ideology. This will be a new legal battle in the president's bid to persecute his opponents by all possible means, whether legal or not.
Trump and his followers have created the narrative of the evil, criminal immigrant invading the United States to destabilize the country, and doing so, they say, with the complicity of a supposedly radical left that has provoked riots that they magnify despite the fact that both law enforcement and the security forces are perfectly controllable. Newsom, in fact, accused Trump of wanting to provoke chaos and violence by sending in the National Guard and asked that the protest be peaceful, although it is not clear that, given the current situation, he can achieve this.
The situation is not resolved, and tonight may be the fourth with clashes. This is, moreover, what the president seems to be seeking and what he also seems to like to happen. It is a strategy of many autocrats, as Newsom recalled on social media: to provoke, sow chaos, and thus have an excuse to intervene, seize rights, and subdue opponents. It's striking to see how much Americans increasingly live in a regime where the rule of law is not entirely clear. In any case, the freedom of expression and protest upheld by the First Amendment of their Constitution is under scrutiny. In universities, in science, and, above all, on the streets.