Cyclogenesis: President Trump deserves these riots.
This administration’s willful inhumanity now risks spinning up more.
On the eve of the Inauguration, I pleaded in an open letter for President Donald Trump to make rebuilding Los Angeles after the wildfires into a great work. He did not, of course, and after admonishing FEMA for failing to reckon with the hurricane in North Carolina and the Californian conflagration, he decided to cripple and/or dismantle the relief agency by placing it under the care of a director who had never heard of hurricane season and withheld funding from disaster-ravaged states. His former press secretary, Governor Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, had to beg the president publicly to help the great state of Arkansas.
Mr. Trump threatens to send the National Guard into the City of Angels to suppress “looting and rioting” his cronies dub “an insurrection” (presumably to drain meaning from the word that accurately describes the damnable January 6 sedition). Ex-Fox News host and DUI hire Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has claimed he also wants to send in 500 Marines to perform domestic law enforcement, the legality of which seems dubious under the Posse Comitatus Act. I fear he hopes to force the brave men and women of the United States military to kill their fellow Americans, as he and the president have previously fantasized.
It is my understanding that protesters “started this” by throwing concrete blocks at ICE agents. No good! Categorically, that violence is wrong. When an order to disperse was issued, some two hundred remained on Friday night, and they were given “the works”—the pepper balls and spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs, all the LAPD’s signature moves. This is, of course, the formula for taking an agitated crowd and turning it into a nightmarish one, and so the next day hundreds more—and, judging by the 8-pointed “star of chaos,” one Michael Moorcock fan—showed up to draw amateur graffiti and take more beatings.
Does this merit 2,000 National Guardsmen? Only if you think the protests will grow to meet the incoming force. Perhaps they will, or think they must, because, once this type of summer starts, it gets hotter.
I cannot believe this is a “good faith” effort to restore order, both because I am skeptical that this administration is capable of action without malicious subtext and because their own words show a desire to immediately politicize this violence as a weapon against Democratic lawmakers known for mild temperaments.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin, who seems like a real bitch, said: “Make no mistake, Democrat politicians like Hakeem Jeffries, Mayor Wu of Boston, Tim Walz, and Mayor Bass of Los Angeles are contributing to the surge in assaults of our ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE. From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale. This violence against ICE must end.”
As the kids say, Sure, Jan. That she cannot call to mind any such “violent rhetoric” except speech condemning the lawless actions of ICE agents, who are in fact a modern-day Nazi Gestapo, reveals that, in this administration’s thinking, any criticism of their actions, or even unflattering characterizations, is viewed as de facto an impediment and disruption, therefore criminal and thus, of a set with any more forceful attacks. Meanwhile, no such standard exists for J6 rioters, who built gallows to hang former Vice President Mike Pence, shouted that they would hang Mr. Pence, and sought him out in the halls of the Capitol. But then, as they say, if it were not for double standards, MAGA Republicans would have none.
Ms. McLaughlin complains about the “repeated vilification and demonization of ICE,” but if the agency is acting like villains and demons, then this is an accurate description. Rioting should not be happening in America’s cities—it poses danger and risk to the life and property of innocents and bystanders—but we should not be surprised by it. For months, Americans have seen footage of ICE agents wearing masks and bullying their way through courthouses, schools, churches, hospitals, and worse, they have seen the White House cheer for it with reckless sadism. Did they think they would be “free” to rule like this forever? There is no more beloved inspiration for American fiction than the American Revolution, wherein plucky underdogs throw off the king who treads on them too complacently. For every ten men who witness injustice, there will be a couple who fancy themselves the next Sam Adams, Luke Skywalker, the Hunger Games lady, whichever.
This makes me fearful. I am writing this now from a quiet hospital waiting room, where I am hoping for news about a family member. I would have preferred to spend this time pacing, without giving thought to the world, or to draft this essay without having to think of my own life. Instead, even these most private moments are invaded by this administration’s catastrophes. I hate them for that. Had they chosen to be normal and avoid relishing harms, I would not have to give this hour to condemn them.
The military parade in DC next weekend and the “No Kings Day” protests may be on a collision course. Will Americans die? Or will this administration realize its folly and take a de-escalatory step? I had thought, with the departure of former President Elon Musk followed by the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States to face trial, we might see the start of a retrenchment that would give us weeks of peace. I am fearful that we may be hurting into something darker and hotter.
Whoever assaulted agents with concrete chunks is an asshole and should be shown the slammer. But that was also not Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who said at the University of Minnesota law school commencement speech: “I’m gonna start with the flashing red light—Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons. No chance to mount a defense. Not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye. Just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.” This seems a fair description of what ICE did to Rümeysa Öztürk in retaliation for writing an op-ed. Even Republican staffers say as much over their toasted marshmallow lattes any given morning at Ebeneezer’s Coffeehouse.
I should note that the conflation of spirited words with physical assault is deplored by most right-leaning public figures whenever else this topic comes up.
I, like my former role model David Brooks, have called for a “comprehensive national civic uprising” against this administration. Demonstrations to that effect are endangered when they are co-opted by brickthrowers. Now, that danger has been federalized and deployed. Who is going to be arrested and brutalized in a show of force?
If Reddit commenters say that riots are the language of the unheard (a fine MLK quote overused anytime a Starbucks window is broken), I would suggest that yesterday’s, today’s, and tomorrow’s demonstrators are speaking clearly: Americans do not like it when Mr. Trump does this shit, and he needs to knock it off. Hurting Californians more will not make them hate the president’s actions, policies, or person less, and it increases the pressure bound to burst across the country.
Hamilton sang, “In the eye of the hurricane there is quiet, just a moment of yellow skies.” I want to feel that way in this warm white room. But there is no quiet, only time in low cellular reception zones. The country’s anguish is building, then building more each time Mr. Trump opens his damn mouth or his servants act malevolently. Assuredly, the president believes that the chaos is his to wield, that the lightning and fire will be reserved for his enemies. This is a mistake.