The unrest in California, which erupted following Donald Trump’s attempts to implement his tough anti–immigration measures, could play into the hands of the Democratic Party, strengthening its position and giving it what Democrats have long lacked – a popular leader capable of leading an anti-Trump protest. The President of the United States and Governor Gavin Newsom engaged in a fierce confrontation. The California authorities accused Trump of provoking riots and sued him on June 9. And a representative of the president’s team publicly threatened Newsom with arrest for opposing the fight against riots and illegal migration.
Riots have been raging in Los Angeles and its environs for days. Thousands of people from predominantly Latino neighborhoods and suburbs are attacking police officers and public buildings. In response, rubber bullets and stun grenades fly at them. As of Monday, the unrest has spread to the north of the state, to San Francisco.
According to Newsom, it’s all Trump’s fault. It was the president, according to the governor of California, who initiated the harsh raids of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE) in the city of Paramount. ICE agents detained more than 100 people here last week. They were charged with illegally staying in the United States. Paramount is a suburb of Los Angeles, where the vast majority of the population are from Mexico. It is even called “little Sinaloa”, after the name of the Mexican state. Last Friday, June 6, riots broke out at Paramount. Their participants did not just destroy everything, but demanded an end to the ICE raids and the release of those subject to deportation. Newsom claims that the state police were able to deal with the riots, and they would have subsided soon if it hadn’t been for Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard soldiers. This inflated the situation and led to the unrest spreading to other settlements. In the lawsuit, the state authorities demand to reverse Trump’s decision. Newsom insists that the president exceeded his authority by deploying army units without proper provocation and without obtaining the approval of the governor of California.
Trump may not have broken any law, but the unwritten tradition is definitely broken. It is very unusual for the United States to introduce National Guard units without the consent of the state authorities. The last time this happened was in 1965. Then President Lyndon Johnson instructed the Alabama National Guard to protect the march of black rights defenders led by Martin Luther King, after the governor of the state, staunch racist George Wallace, said he did not guarantee the safety of the participants of this action. Now the situation is fundamentally different. Trump and ICE are accused of racism, while the governor of the state, on the contrary, positions himself as a defender of civil rights.
There is another difference from the events of 60 years ago. Neither Johnson nor his men threatened Wallace with jail. Now, in case of opposition from the National Guard, both Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have been promised arrest. This promise, or rather threat, was made by one of the people very close to Trump, Tom Homan. His official title is Deputy Executive Director of the White House for Enforcement and Expulsion. However, Homan is preferred in the press, and even in official statements, to be referred to by the title “border tsar.” He, the former head of ICE, was assigned by Trump to oversee the large-scale deportations of illegal migrants promised by the president.
Homan threatened to arrest Bass and Newsom not in a private conversation, but openly, on the air of NBC News on Sunday evening, June 8. “Knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal migrant is a criminal offense. Obstructing law enforcement agencies in the performance of their work is a criminal offense. Since they cross this line, we will ask the Ministry of Justice to bring them to justice,” said the “border tsar”. “Come on. If you’re so cool, go arrest me!”– Newsome responded to this. The confrontation took place after Trump posted a text on his Truth Social network, regarded by many as an attempt to win back. He thanked the National Guard, which had just begun guarding federal buildings on Sunday, for their “excellent work.” Along the way, Trump insulted the governor of California, calling him Newscum (“scum” is English for “scoundrel”). However, the president’s further texts in Truth Social left no doubt that he was not going to reverse his decision to deploy the National Guard. “I am instructing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristy Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in coordination with all other ministries and agencies, to take all necessary actions to free Los Angeles from the migrant invasion and put an end to these migrant riots. Order will be restored, illegal immigrants will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be liberated!” the president wrote on Monday. The mention of the Minister of Defense is particularly interesting. Hegseth previously admitted that the Marines could be deployed to Los Angeles. And this is a reference to the very distant past.
Thus, Trump is again showing the same reaction to racially tinged unrest as in 2020. Five years ago, there were riots and protests in the United States, too, following the murder of George Floyd, a black policeman. Usually, in such cases, presidents try to calm passions, but Trump, on the contrary, inflamed them. The events of 2020 and the president’s reaction to them were actively used by the left wing of the Democratic Party in order to increase its popularity. Now it seems that Newsom, who is a centrist in his views, intends to do the same. He does not hide the fact that he wants to become the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections. The unrest in the state and, most importantly, what it will lead to, will show how well–founded these claims are.