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President Donald Trump is defending his muscular and controversial moves to tame unrest in the nation’s second most populous city.
“If I didn’t “SEND IN THE TROOPS” to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now,” the president argued Tuesday in a social media post.
Aiming to extinguish escalating protests in Los Angeles sparked by immigration raids carried out by ICE at his administration’s direction, Trump sent in National Guard troops and even mobilized Marines.
Trump broke six decades of precedent by federalizing California’s National Guard without the consent of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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Protesters block the intersection of 2nd St. and San Pedro St. during Monday night’s anti-ICE rally in downtown Los Angeles. (Peter D’Abrosca for Fox News Digital)
Regardless of the legality of his moves, Trump’s actions put immigration and law and order – key issues that helped him win back the White House in last year’s election – firmly back in the national spotlight, offering the president obvious political opportunities.
A source in the president’s political orbit told Fox News that it is “a winning script,” by putting Democrats on defense once again regarding immigration.
Additionally, the source said that Trump has a clear mandate from American voters for his mass deportation effort to clear the country of undocumented immigrants.
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The optics – clashes with police and tear gas in the streets, masked protesters throwing rocks at police, setting cars on fire and waving Mexican flags – may likely boost support among a large swath of Americans, bolstering Trump’s political playbook.
While Trump’s overall approval ratings remain underwater in most national polling, thanks to negative numbers on the economy, the visuals from Los Angeles shine a spotlight on the issues on which the president performs best – immigration and border security, and law and order.
A woman waits for a bus at a stop vandalized with anti-ICE graffiti while riots grip Los Angeles. (Peter D’Abrosca for Fox News Digital)
“Images splashed across the media of Mexican flag-wielding rioters burning cars and assaulting police officers validate President Trump’s call for greater immigration enforcement and border control. It also puts Democrats on the defensive by highlighting their inability to maintain law and order in blue states,” veteran Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News.
Additionally, Nicole Schlinger, a longtime conservative consultant, highlighted that “this is exactly what Donald Trump campaigned on, and the swing-state voters who backed him expect action before these riots reach their cities. He’s delivering on their votes, with action, not apology.”
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The violence in Los Angeles also offers up a familiar foil to the president – Newsom, a Democrat, who is considered a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
Newsom, whom Trump suggested should be arrested, has repeatedly accused the president and his administration of manufacturing the crisis and illegally militarizing Los Angeles.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, and President Donald Trump, seen meeting in Los Angeles in January amid rampant wildfires, are now trading fire over anti-ICE protests and the president’s federalizing of National Guard troops. (Pool)
Newsom, who is suing the president to reverse the order, charged in a social media post that “this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism that threatens the foundation of our republic. We cannot let it stand.”
While Newsom has condemned the violence in the streets, Schlinger claimed that “this is the visual that plays right into Trump’s hand. Liberal Gavin Newsom, who tried to wave a moderate flag on conservative podcasts, is now defending illegal immigrants flying the Mexican flag while standing on burning cars. There’s no middle ground with burning cars on it.”
Williams argued that “Newsom’s record of failed leadership, rank incompetence, and botched responses to multiple high-profile crises make him an excellent political foil for President Trump.”
Another fringe benefit for Trump – the rioting in Los Angeles bumped an uncomfortable headline for the administration – the nasty feud with Elon Musk is far from the spotlight.
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Republican officials and committees are using the violence in Los Angeles as a cudgel to bash Democrats.
“If you look at what’s going on in L.A., it shows exactly what [former President] Biden and the Democrats did by opening their borders the way they did and allowing millions and millions and millions of people coming here unvetted. They’ve caused all this,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida claimed on Tuesday. “I think President Trump is doing what he said he was going to do on the campaign trail. He’s going to keep the country safe.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is the campaign arm of the House GOP, charged that “While LA is burning and law enforcement is being attacked, radical House Democrats are ‘scoffing’ at any thought of condemning the violent riots. The party has completely lost their minds.”
Even first-term Sen. John Fetterman of California, who has increasingly bucked and criticized fellow Democrats, chastised his own party.
Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman criticized some in his own party for their response to the protests in Los Angeles. (Fox Nation)
“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement,” Fetterman argued in a social media post.
However, the political clash in California is likely to enrage and further energize most Democrats.
“The actions of the Trump administration are dangerous and overaggressive. The reality is that Trump has provoked these protests, and now he is trying to escalate them,” longtime Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News, as he echoed a sentiment coming from many in his party.
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Additionally, Democrats see plenty of hypocrisy in Trump’s move to send in the troops, given what happened during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Trump did not call out the National Guard during the rioting at the Capitol.
One of his first acts in January, when he returned to power in the White House, was to pardon those convicted in the storming of the Capitol.
“Donald Trump pretends to respect the rule of law, and we should not forget that he sat idly by as violent protesters stormed the Capitol on January 6th and then later pardoned them,” Caiazzo said.
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