Yesterday, Ruy Teixeira had a story up at the Free Press titled “The LA Riots Are a Trump Ad.” He’s not the only person who has made this point but as usual he does it very well.
The chaos in Southern California could have been designed in a lab to exploit Democratic weak spots, combining the issues of illegal immigration, crime, and public disorder. Yet their most visible response to the anti-deportation riots in Los Angeles has been to denounce President Trump for sending National Guard troops to quell the riots. The situation, they insist, is under control—or at least it was, until Trump intervened.
This view is not shared by some in charge of actually doing the quelling. As Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell admitted at a Sunday evening press conference: “We are overwhelmed. . . . Tonight, we had individuals out there shooting commercial-grade fireworks at our officers. . . that can kill you. . . . They’ll take backpacks filled with cinder blocks and hammers, break the blocks, and pass the pieces around to throw at officers and cars, and even at other people.”…
There might very well be a universe where it makes sense for Democrats—already saddled with a dreadful image on crime and immigration—to train their fire on Trump and the National Guard instead of anti-deportation rioters. However, it is not the universe we currently inhabit.
…with the exception of a few moderates like [Rahm] Emanuel, what’s unfolding in California should make it glaringly obvious that Democratic officials aren’t yet ready for a real reckoning with their party’s far left. Voters are noticing and will act accordingly.
In short, Democrats are losing by going right back to the same anti-police, anti-law and order messaging that they embraced in 2020 and came to regret after the 2022 midterms. Only this time is arguably worse because there was no groundswell from the public pushing anyone in the direction of downplaying violence or blaming the police. Democrats are just having a typical Trump-must-be-wrong, knee-jerk response. And they are once again seizing the wrong end of an 80-20 (or at least 60-40) issue.
That said, how this falls out politically will still depend partly on how President Trump responds. He’s been given a winning hand but Christopher Rufo offered some unsolicited advice yesterday on how to maintain his advantage.
…the Left is giving President Trump all the visual symbolism he needs to advance his immigration agenda. Most Americans see chaos in the name of a foreign flag and find it repellent. Though Trump’s language about a migrant “invasion” has sometimes been dismissed as hyperbolic, it seems that the Left is intent on turning it into a material reality.
The question: How should the president respond? Many on the right may feel an instinctual reaction to “send in the troops.” While this concern for law and order is natural and merited, it must be pursued in a way that maximizes the chance for success and minimizes the chance for blowback. As the president considers his options, he might keep in mind a number of strategic points that, if implemented, will increase his leverage in the fight for large-scale deportations.
The administration must deny the Left a strong visual counterargument. It’s easy to see how scenes of militarization, abuse of demonstrators, or a violent death could reverse public sympathies and present the administration as abusing its authority. The language of politics is visual—and therefore emotional, which means that a single mistake can reverse the flow of opinion and imperil the president’s immigration agenda. Left-wing tacticians have trained their foot soldiers to bait law enforcement into confrontation and to play victim for the press, to great effect.
If you’ve been watching the left run their game as long as I have, you already know how this works. Shout at the cops and call them every name in the book then tacitly accept a bunch of lawbreaking in the midst of your protest group, from vandalism to assault. Throw enough bricks at police and eventually one of them might get angry and shove someone roughly. That’s the moment the trained activists are waiting and hoping for because they already know the national media is mostly on their side and action by police which can be isolated from the context will be run on a loop.
Rufo recommends doing a few things to avoid this. First, hold back on sending in maximum troops to avoid the risk of overkill. Also, he suggests if there are too few initially this won’t backfire on Trump but on Newsom who has sued to oppose their use. Holding back a bit is a win-win scenario.
Secondly, press California leaders (Newsom, Bass, etc.) to admit that the violence needs to be stopped. By sharing authority with them you reduce any risk of being the sole person responsible if something goes wrong. He suggests holding a joint press-conference to show everyone is against the rioting.
Third, he recommends what he calls a visible-invisible approach. The visible part is having enough National Guard troops make sure none of the protesters try anything. The invisible part is to identify the leaders creating the street chaos and take them off the field. This could mean infiltrating their groups or just sending unmarked police to arrest them. Once the leaders are removed the rest won’t know how to respond.
Ultimately the goal, according to Rufo, should be to win converts to the president’s immigration stance. But to do that he needs to not only out-power the activists and trained troublemakers, he needs to outsmart them as well.
Do you agree with Rufo’s take? I do though I don’t think point #2 is very unlikely to happen. Neither Newsom nor Bass are looking for any agreement with Trump at this point. That could change quickly if the violence continues to escalate. There’s already a showdown happening this afternoon.
Anti-ICE protesters are back at the federal building in downtown Los Angeles. National Guard move into the crowd to let federal vehicles pass through. pic.twitter.com/RTgeCxxFLV
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) June 10, 2025
CBP agents fired flash bangs and pepper balls at the anti-ICE crowd in LA while some people threw bottles at them. We’ll see what happens as the day goes on. pic.twitter.com/uVvZHwIlZk
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) June 10, 2025
AT least one arrest was made.
I saw CBP agents storm into the anti-ICE group and arrest one protester. I don’t know what the reason was. pic.twitter.com/i1PtyvMbl4
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) June 10, 2025
Protesters are now moving onto the freeway.
BREAKING: Anti-ICE protesters have made it onto the 101 freeway in Los Angeles and are blocking traffic.
pic.twitter.com/hBYvK4nejU— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) June 10, 2025
🚨: Scuffles broke out as California Highway Patrol pushed the anti-ICE crowd off of the 101 freeway. At least one person was arrested. pic.twitter.com/kcwX8wNZz5
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) June 10, 2025
We’ll have to wait a few more hours until dark to see how this develops.
