Trump continues to tighten his authoritarian vise grip

Trump continues to tighten his authoritarian vise grip
With his use of the military and threats against blue cities, "we're seeing something new," expert says

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published July 11, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) Dozens of federal immigration officers and around 90 National Guard troops on foot, horseback and in military vehicles raided MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on Monday. The hour-long operation disrupted a children’s day camp and left health care outreach workers in fear when troops demanded they leave at gunpoint. The park is located in a diverse, largely immigrant neighborhood, which likely made it a target for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

A day later, President Donald Trump announced at a cabinet meeting that he was considering a federal takeover of Washington, D.C. “We have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to,” he said to a group of reporters. “I mean, we’re looking at D.C. We’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you. We want a capital that’s run flawlessly, and it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”

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I recently spoke with Joseph Nunn, who serves as a counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, and focuses on issues surrounding the domestic activities of the U.S. military, including the Insurrection Act, the Posse Comitatus Act, National Guard deployments and martial law. In our conversation, Nunn explained how Trump’s recent actions in L.A. are an almost “unprecedented” move in American history, one that constitutes a severe threat to the country’s democratic culture, civil-military relations and the rule of law.

Several weeks ago, there were protests against the mass deployment of ICE and other law enforcement in Los Angeles as part of Trump’s deportation campaign. Some of these protests turned violent. In response, and over the objections of California Gov. Newsom, a Democrat, Donald Trump federalized the National Guard and also sent in active-duty Marines. The troops are still there even though the protests have ended. Through your legal lens, how are you making sense of these events?

The way the Trump administration is using the military in Los Angeles is unprecedented. The military has been used domestically in this country, for example, for disaster relief, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and for law enforcement. But generally, when the president has needed to use the military for law enforcement, it was done through the Insurrection Act, which is the means that Congress has provided for that purpose. What Trump is doing in Los Angeles is bypassing those norms by relying on an entirely novel interpretation of a statute, Title 10 § 12406 of the U.S. Code, combined with a somewhat dubious constitutional theory about inherent executive power to protect federal property and functions. .....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/11/trump-continues-to-tighten-his-authoritarian-grip/