Trump using L.A. unrest to push his big bill in D.C.
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A protestor holds up a Mexican flag as burning cars line the street in Los Angeles on Sunday. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
President Trump and his allies have a new message for wobbly Republicans in Congress: Either support his "Big Beautiful Bill" or get bashed for backing the Los Angeles protesters waving Mexican flags in front of burning cars.
Why it matters: It's a sign of the political hardball Trump is playing within his own party. At the same time, he's squeezing California's Democratic leaders with what critics call an over-the-top response to protests fueled by his immigration crackdown.
- The drama in L.A. has helped the White House shift some of its focus from Trump's feud with Elon Musk and place it squarely on immigration — an issue on which Trump continues to poll relatively well despite growing discontent over his aggressive push for arrests and deportations.
- As California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass accuse Trump of escalating the tension there, the White House sees a chance to attack sanctuary city policies, embarrass Democrats and show the need for the immigration funding in the mammoth bill that most Republicans strongly support.
Zoom in: Trump has long backed using force — even the military — to subdue destructive protests.
- But his advisers say there was no master plan for immigration raids to spark the type of protests and vandalism in L.A. that would lead Trump to call in the National Guard, over Newsom and Bass' objections.
The big picture: To Trump's team, Newsom's opposition, the televised images of vandalized cars, and protesters throwing rocks and waving foreign flags to oppose U.S. immigration arrests did more to boost the White House's push to maintain GOP support for Trump's bill than any of its recent talking points.
- "We see the riots in L.A. laden with political opportunity, in that it's a fight between what Republicans say they want vs. the radical left and protesters waving the Mexican flag in front of burning cars — and the Democrats supporting them," said a senior White House adviser.
- "It's the best BBB marketing ever. It has brought the critical nature of increased border funding and immigration enforcement to the fore," said Andrew Kolvet, spokesman for Turning Point USA, a major voice in Republican advocacy.
- "Everyone we're talking to in the Senate says this put it over the top."
To Kolvet's point, Tom Cotton, chair of the Senate's Republican conference, sent out three talking points Monday to his GOP colleagues emphasizing Newsom's role and violent protestors.
- Cotton also tussled with Newsom on X. In one reply, the senator posted a picture of a masked demonstrator waving a Mexican flag atop a vandalized car with flames in the background.
Reality check: There is a constitutional question about whether Trump is empowered to call up the California National Guard when its governor is opposed. Newsom is suing.
- The context is dramatically different, but a president calling in the Guard over a governor's objection has happened before. In 1968, President Johnson did so to enforce civil rights laws amid opposition from Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
- Late Monday, Trump also moved to deploy Marines to Los Angeles, an unprecedented escalation in modern times, further angering California officials.
What they're saying: "Republicans are trying to take away health care from millions of Americans in order to give tax breaks to billionaires — so Trump is manufacturing a crisis, demonizing immigrants with increasing extremism, cruelty and disregard for the law," California Sen. Alex Padilla said on X Monday.
- "It's the Trump playbook."
- But Padilla's post, which featured a TV news clip of him making the comments, showed the messaging problem Democrats face. It was displayed in a split screen of him talking juxtaposed with video of a burning car.
It wasn't clear Monday whether Trump's California political play was changing any holdout Republicans' votes on his signature bill.
- Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the few GOP no votes on the legislation last month, still opposes the bill because of its deficits and policies favoring state and local tax (SALT) deductions that particularly benefit blue states.
- "The 'Big Beautiful Bill' actually rewards Gov. Newsom's failed polices with a $100 billion gift to California in the form of increased SALT deductions," he told Axios in a written statement.
- The protests "are a bitter reminder that Trump let California and NY Republicans ransom his border security agenda," Massie added.
- Another congressional Republican who has serious problems with the bill told Axios on background that "this has always been the plan by BBB supporters — to use the border as pressure to not address the fiscal impact of some/many of the taxes."
- Trump's L.A. response is "just a circumstance of not letting a crisis go to waste."
Alex Isenstadt and Stef W. Kight contributed to this story.
