I just went live with
to talk about what’s really happening on the ground in Los Angeles—and why Trump’s authoritarian escalation is rooted in weakness.Here’s where things stand right now:
Trump federalized 2,000 National Guard troops, and announced 2,000 more on Monday.
700 active duty Marines have been deployed.
Hegseth says they’ll be there for 60 days.
Let’s not lose sight of what sparked these protests in the first place:
ICE isn’t focused on violent criminals. They’re targeting workplaces, courthouses, and families. Productive undocumented immigrants—people who pay nearly $100 billion in taxes annually—are being swept up in these raids.
These militarized ICE raids aren’t coming from strength. They’re coming from desperation. Trump is failing to meet his deportation goals, so the administration is manufacturing a crisis to justify sweeping arrests and show-of-force military theatrics.
And the legal guardrails? He’s trying to bulldoze through them.
Under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, the military is barred from engaging in civilian law enforcement. That’s why Trump is now labeling peaceful protesters “insurrectionists”—to lay the legal groundwork for the potential invocation of the Insurrection Act to sidestep the law entirely.
On the White House lawn, he even said that if he were Tom Homan, he would arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom. This is blatant, performative authoritarianism.
As Don and I discussed in our conversation, the protests are largely peaceful, and LAPD had it under control long before the troops ever arrived. But Trump wants the fear optics. He wants to claim victory over a crisis of his own making.
Watch our full conversation for a deeper dive into Trump’s motives, the stakes, and what resistance could look like in this moment.
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