[Kristi Noem press conference in Los Angeles, June 12, 2025]
“The Department of Homeland Security and the officers and the agencies and the departments and the military people that are working on this operation will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city.
We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.” — Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem
Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass are leading the State of California and the City of Los Angeles because they won free and fair elections to do so.
Besmirching these leaders or using cute appeals to liberation to serve political ends hardly justifies — under our Constitution — military rule imposed by a president. The authority of state governments hasn’t vanished because we have a wannabe strongman in the White House. The Constitution places limits on the federal government and on presidents.
Note: I’m not an attorney, much less a legal scholar. It may well be in this instance that this president is acting within the strict rule of law (as authorized by past Congresses, which took for granted that future presidents would act with good faith, respect for our democratic institutions, and a commitment above all else to furthering the national interest for all Americans). But the big picture is clear enough for all who care to see it: this president and the contemporary Republican Party (which dominates all three branches of the federal government) are pushing hard to create an authoritarian regime in the United States of America.
Donald Trump made clear during his campaign in 2024 that he intended to crack down on his political opponents. His immigration crusade in the biggest blue state of all creates fear, disrupts lives, and damages the economy. He is deliberately, with malice aforethought ripping power away from leaders elected by voters who disfavor this president and his agenda.
In 2021, Trump sought to overthrow the results of an election. That was without precedent at the time. Then it became a thing in the MAGA GOP (from Arizona’s Kari Lake to North Carolina’s Jefferson Griffin). Increasingly, when Republicans lose an election they declare it rigged. Americans can no longer rely on both parties to accept election outcomes and peaceful transfers of power.
Trump created the big lie that he won in 2020. MAGA and rightwing media have kept this shameful lie alive in order to generate anger in the GOP base and to justify whatever power grab Republicans can cook up. Project 2025 was a grand scheme to cook up as much as possible, which the Trump 2 administration is intent on implementing.
Now, without bothering to manufacture a big lie about California elections, Trump has simply grabbed power from the undisputed election winners in a blue state and a blue city — and employed the nation’s military in doing so. This too, until this month, was unprecedented in a democratic United States.
Trump’s actions in Los Angeles represent an attack on our democracy. Arbitrary rule without accountability is why Americans fought the Revolutionary War. The United States Constitution exists to secure our freedom from tyranny.
No Kings!