Putting the bully in bully pulpit, Trump escalates in L.A. rather than seeking calm
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- Trump has abandoned the traditional role of consoler-in-chief to make things worse in L.A.
- President George H.W. Bush’s actions following acquittals in the Rodney King case are instructive.
When four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, President George H.W. Bush expressed the shock and horror many Americans felt.
“What you saw and what I saw on the TV video was revolting,” Bush said in a nationally televised speech from the Oval Office. “I felt anger. I felt pain. I thought: How can I explain this to my grandchildren?”
Bush spoke after dispatching troops to Los Angeles after three days of civil unrest sparked by the not-guilty verdicts — some of the worst domestic violence the country had ever seen. He acted at the request of California Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.
Bush offered no apologies. To the contrary, he said “there can be no excuse ... for the murder, arson, theft, and vandalism that have terrorized the law-abiding citizens of Los Angeles.”
At the same time, however, Bush sought to address some of the underlying issues — the racist history of the Los Angeles Police Department, chief among them — that festered for decades before exploding into molten rage. And he promised to use Washington’s power to pursue justice, which eventually led to a federal trial of the officers who battered King.
President Trump is sending the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom by invoking rarely used federal powers.
That is, historically, what presidents have done: Facing volatile circumstances, confronting crises, they summon the powers of their office to explain, to ameliorate, to reassure and, above all, to try to calm the situation.
Anger and aggrievement are the twin engines that power the president’s glowering soul. He used the pretense of some relatively modest, scattered protests to seize control of California’s National Guard and unilaterally dispatch troops to Los Angeles — launching an assault on the Constitution and the limits of presidential power yet again.
He demonstrated anew his eagerness to divide and conquer and, with swagger, put the bully into bully pulpit.
“He does not see that calming role as being very integral to what he does,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton historian and author of a book on Trump’s first term. “He is definitely willing to provoke conflict and to fuel division rather than to move in the opposite way. ... Instead of calming a situation, it’s the opposite. It’s ramping up a situation.”
Before we continue, let’s be clear. As Bush said, there’s no excuse for arson, theft or vandalism.
Violent protest doesn’t bring about justice. It only begets more violence. It justifies crackdowns such as the one Trump has so eagerly employed — playing into the president’s hands, as Gov. Gavin Newsom put it.
Moreover, waving the flag of a foreign country isn’t prideful or politically smart in the least. Rightly or wrongly, it’s inciteful, serving only to distract from and hurt the pro-migrant cause the flag-wavers profess to champion.
And, to be clear, there are some people who use protests such as the ones against Trump’s immigration raids as a cover and excuse to pursue an extraneous agenda of violence and anarchy. They’re doing more than just physical damage.
None of which, however, justifies the conduct of a president who, when faced with flames, comes running with gasoline. Instead of a steady hand or the consoler in chief, we have a political arsonist residing in the White House.
The fact Trump dispatched troops to tamp down protests in Los Angeles, the biggest blue megalopolis in the nation’s biggest blue state, cannot be ignored.
“The president loves to take symbolic acts,” said George C. Edwards III, a presidential scholar at Texas A&M University, in this instance targeting California and an enduring nemesis, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and using immigration — long an issue at the heart of his political agenda — as his sword and shield.
“Aside from an incidental goal of keeping peace,” Edwards said, “I think that’s important in his mind.”
You can practically see Trump salivate.
And there is something else worth noting, as the president calls in the Guard and positions himself as the savior of law and order.
“They spit, we hit!” Trump blustered, warning demonstrators of the consequences they would face if they assaulted police and troops in such a manner.
This from a president who unconditionally pardoned 1,500 criminals convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and its peace officers — one of whom attacked a policeman by plunging a stun gun multiple times into his neck.
“You tase, we’re unfazed!” — is that how it’s going to be, so long as the violence is carried out on Trump’s behalf?
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump called in the National Guard with the expectation that it would ‘hopefully prevent and deter some of this violence.’
In the decade since his descent down a gilded escalator — and emergence as the most dominant and consequential political figure of the 21st century — Trump has proved himself a peerless master of distraction and deflection. And so it is again.
But in looking out for his own interests, and conflating policy with personal grudges, Trump has abdicated one of the major responsibilities of a president: to dampen unruly passions, to quell violence and, as the preamble of the Constitution states, to “insure domestic tranquility.”
“Any moment like this is very dangerous,” Zelizer said, “because the more force that is there, the more potential there is for something bad to happen.”
We can hope for the best. But this will probably not end well.
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- The article portrays President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles as a politically motivated escalation, contrasting it with George H.W. Bush’s 1992 response to the Rodney King riots. While Bush coordinated with local leaders and acknowledged systemic issues like police racism, Trump acted unilaterally, bypassing Governor Gavin Newsom’s objections and using the crisis to advance his immigration agenda[2][4].
- Trump is criticized for prioritizing confrontation over calm, with Princeton historian Julian Zelizer noting his reliance on “anger and aggrievement” to fuel division rather than seeking reconciliation[4]. This approach is framed as undermining the presidential duty to “insure domestic tranquility” under the Constitution[4].
- The author highlights hypocrisy in Trump’s harsh stance against protests, given his unconditional pardons for participants in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, which included violence against law enforcement[4].
Different views on the topic
- Historical precedent from 1992 underscores the federal government’s role in restoring order during civil unrest. President Bush emphasized that the Los Angeles riots represented “the brutality of a mob” necessitating forceful intervention, while still pursuing justice for Rodney King through federal civil rights charges[1][3].
- Advocates for strong federal action argue that localized protests risk escalating into widespread violence, as seen in 1992, when days of riots caused dozens of deaths and extensive damage[2]. They might view Trump’s deployment as a precautionary measure to prevent similar chaos, even if it conflicts with state leadership[2].
- Critics of the article’s framing could assert that waving foreign flags during protests—a detail mentioned but not endorsed by the author—legitimizes federal intervention by conflating demonstrations with external agendas, thereby justifying a robust response to protect public safety[4].
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