President Donald Trump’s moves to deploy US troops to Los Angeles and hold a splashy parade on the Army’s 250th birthday fulfills his longtime goal of leaning on the military for a show of force and political power.
Stymied in his first term by cabinet members who resisted the use of soldiers on American soil, Trump has a more compliant team around him this time. After sending in the National Guard this weekend, he escalated his showdown with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday by mobilizing 700 active-duty Marines, a decision that Newsom called a “provocation.”
Late Monday, Trump went even further, authorizing an additional 2,000 National Guard members to deploy there, bringing the total to 4,000, not including the Marines.
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David Leopold, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the presence of the National Guard and Marines was a “shocking” development meant to deliberately spread chaos, confusion and fear. “What we’ve seen is people exercising their First Amendment rights,” Leopold told Bloomberg Television. “That is what these troops are being sent out to suppress.”
Bloomberg: Unrestrained Trump Turns to Military in Second-Term Power Play
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