WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles.

The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration’s immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a president has done so — and is deploying active-duty troops to support the guard.

By overriding Newsom, Trump is already going beyond what he did to respond to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when he warned he could send troops to contain demonstrations that turned violent if governors in the states did not act to do so themselves. Trump said in September of that year that he “can’t call in the National Guard unless we’re requested by a governor” and that “we have to go by the laws.”

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    “Maximalist?”

    That’s the word they’re choosing here? Not ‘illegal’ or ‘brutal’ or ‘authoritarian’ or ‘Gestapo-Like’?

    Using the term ‘Maximalist’ in this context has serious ‘enhanced interrogation’ or ‘separation’ energy.

    • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      They don’t want to discourage the practice entirely, because the Democrats also do this stuff. Tim Walz sent in the national guard to attack BLM protestors just like this, and he’s supposed to the “nice” sweet old grandpa Dem. So their narrative is that it’s not bad to send in the military to attack activists, but that Trump is taking it too far.

        • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          No problem. Gavin Newsom is also decrying this current escalation, but he’s been rounding up homeless people for months, and threatening cities who will not comply and choose to protect the homeless.

          So yeah, they’re trying to walk the line of ‘not all militarism is bad, but this is.’