The showdown Trump wants — and how Americans can push back

“It is the fight President Trump had been waiting for,” says a New York Times analysis. In bypassing the authority of California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling in the National Guard to respond to protests in the Los Angeles area over his administration’s efforts to deport more migrants, the president is pushing the boundaries of presidential authority and stoking criticism that he’s inflaming the situation for political gain, says the Times.

Local and state authorities hadn’t asked for help in dealing with the scattered protests after an immigration raid on Friday. But Trump and his top aides leaned into the confrontation with California’s leaders on Sunday, portraying the demonstrations as an existential threat to the country — and setting in motion an aggressive federal response that in turn sparked new protests across the city, the Times says.

“This is a fight to save civilization,” says Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff.

“It could not be clearer,” says Newt Gingrich, former GOP House speaker and Trump ally. “One side is for enforcing the law and protecting Americans, and the other side is for defending illegals and being on the side of the people who break the law.”

Many California officials, who long have been at odds with Trump, say the president is trying to exploit the situation for his political advantage and sow unneeded disorder and confusion, says the Los Angeles Times.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., says the president and his aides “create a crisis of their own making and come in with all the theatrics and cruelty of immigration enforcement.”

Here is an explainer of Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles, from The Associated Press.

Peaceful pushback

“Right now, our major bulwarks against Trump’s police state are the federal courts and broad-based peaceful protests — such as the one that many of us will engage in this coming Saturday, June 14, on the No Kings Day of Action (information here),” says political economist and author Robert Reich, who served in the Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations, on Substack.

“If you are in the National Guard or active-duty military and you believe you are being ordered to violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, I urge you to call the GI Rights Hotline for advice and support, at 877-447-4487,” he says.

“It is imperative that we remain peaceful, that we demonstrate our resolve to combat this tyranny but do so nonviolently, and that we let America know about the emerging infrastructure of Trump’s police state and the importance of resisting it,” he says.

“Remember: Although it takes one authoritarian to establish a police state, it takes just 3.5 percent of a population to topple him and end it,” Reich says.