Trump's Strongman Week: Inside his show of military force
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Image credit Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg, Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register, Brendan Smialowski/AFP, John Moore via Getty Images
Troops deployed to Los Angeles. Paratroopers dropping from the sky before a partisan speech to troops at Fort Bragg. A military parade in D.C. that will coincide with the president's birthday.
- Call it President Trump's Strongman Week. Trump is making a point of showing executive force at a level he only dreamed about during his first term.
Why it matters: Trump's swift militarized response Saturday to the Los Angeles protests marks a defining moment in his presidency, as he uses his military authority to juice his immigration crackdown and hammer Democrats — all with a mix of pomp and threats.
Zoom in: In a sign he's moving closer to escalating military action by declaring protests such as L.A.'s as insurrections, Trump said Tuesday that he'll send troops to any city he deems at risk of riots or possibly even protests he doesn't like — including Saturday's military parade in D.C.
- "I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it — if they do it — they're going to be met with equal or greater force," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office regarding the possibility of protests this weekend in D.C.
- Trump's executive order last weekend authorizing the National Guard deployment doesn't specify it's only for Los Angeles. It could apply anywhere.
Later Tuesday, during a speech to troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., Trump blasted former President Biden and California's Democratic leadership while calling the L.A. protests against his immigration raids "anarchy." Earlier, he'd called some of the protesters "insurrectionists."
- Such claims — which have been aggressively disputed by California officials — suggest Trump is seeking to justify using the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows the deployment of U.S. troops to quell domestic unrest and is among the most extreme emergency powers available to a president.
- Already, he's ordered 4,000 National Guard troops to L.A. over the objection of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). On Tuesday, hundreds of Marines were arriving as well — a move Newsom and other state and local officials called unnecessary and an abuse of power.
- "Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a president," Newsom posted on X Tuesday. "By turning the military against American citizens, he is threatening the very core of our democracy."
The backstory: Trump's actions in many ways reflect his regret at not sending in the National Guard sooner in 2020, during his first administration's response to the unrest that followed George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
- Trump's advisers at the time talked him out of it.
- Trump also wanted to have a military parade in 2020, but dropped the idea after advisers cautioned it would look too authoritarian and could cause costly damage by tanks rolling along D.C. streets.
- Marc Short, then-Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, recalled that Trump had been eager to hold a military parade since French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Trump at a Bastille Day parade in Paris in 2017.
- A senior Trump 2020 campaign official said using the military during the Floyd protests would have been risky, given the sensitive racial issues at the center of the demonstrations.
The big picture: Now, in his second term, Trump isn't expressing such concerns. He has different advisers who are more in line with his desires.
- But one constant remains: Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's aggressive immigration policies. He has aggressively called for using the National Guard to crack down on any protesters who try to block federal agents from arresting unauthorized immigrants.
- "Stephen has been clear in all the meetings: More military, faster," said a Trump adviser familiar with the discussions.
- Bolstering Miller: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whom the adviser described as "practically bloodthirsty" in her support for more and tougher immigration enforcement.
- A DHS spokesperson pushed back on that characterization and said Noem is "antithetical to bloodthirsty — she is trying to prevent bloodshed."
This weekend, Trump will get his military parade — a $45 million effort celebrating the Army's 250th birthday that happens to fall on Trump's 79th birthday and Flag Day.
- Army officials plan to display rocket launchers and missiles along with more than 100 aircraft and tanks, according to people familiar with the planning.
- Trump on Tuesday had a warning for any protesters — and didn't distinguish between troublemakers and peaceful citizens expressing their speech rights.
- "I haven't even heard about a protest," he said, "but you know, this is people that hate our country .... They will be met with very heavy force."
The intrigue: White House insiders say Trump's response to the L.A. protests appears to have energized him after a week in which his "First Buddy," Elon Musk, brutally criticized him during their falling out over Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" in Congress.
- "The president was actually hurt" by the Musk episode, according to a confidant who spoke with Trump about it. "Yes, he has feelings, and he was hurt the way anyone would be when a friend turns on them."
- "But that's gone now. L.A. wiped away the Elon drama," the source said. "What's driving the president is how the riots of 2020 are seared into his brain, and how he wished he could've sent in the troops to end it."
