Under the auspices of a seldomly used law, Donald Trump is granting himself emergency powers to create chaos in California.
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In yet another power grab, Donald Trump on Saturday night signed an order to deploy 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to put down protests that erupted following ICE raids in California.
Normally, it is a governor’s prerogative to call up the National Guard. However, Trump invoked a seldomly used law that allows him to bypass the governor, in this case Gavin Newsom (D).
Specifically, a president can deploy the National Guard if the US is being invaded, if there is a “rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the United States,” or if the president is unable to execute the law with regular forces.
You can be the judge as to whether a few people protesting against ICE agents constitutes any of the above.
Of course, Trump doesn’t care.
This is part of a pattern of him granting himself additional powers by misapplying laws meant for actual emergencies.
What is happening in California isn’t a “rebellion” any more than there is a state-sponsored “invasion” of the United States by Venezuela, which is the reason Trump cited as justification for the extraordinary detention and deportation of immigrants.
It’s all just another step toward authoritarian rule.
The fact that this is happening in a state he despises, and whose economy he can disrupt in this way, is just a bonus for the president.
Of course, the White House tries to paint this as some sort of existential crisis instead of Americans being fed up with masked thugs grabbing people off the streets.
“In recent days, violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles, California,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States.”
Really?
If this is about “illegal criminals,” then why are these workplace raids?
And if they are “basic operations,” then why is ICE showing up with armored trucks?
This isn’t about deportations. This is about escalating a situation to a point where an additional show of force and more violence seem like an appropriate response until things fully spiral out of control.
And it is all justified by the need to protect all of those poor, heavily armed ICE agents.
“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” Leavitt added. “These criminals will be arrested and swiftly brought to justice.”
Are you kidding us???
Where was that zero-tolerance policy on January 6, when an actual mob stormed Congress to stop an election from being certified?
That resembled a rebellion a lot more than what is happening in LA.
And where was Trump’s concern for law enforcement officers on that day? Certainly nowhere to be found when he pardoned all those people who assaulted police officers.
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