The Self Fulfilling Prophecy of Donald Trump's Idiocy
What’s happening in Los Angeles is a direct result of Donald Trump trying to reshape reality through his sweaty fat fingers
While Donald Trump was sitting at a UFC event on June 7, he took to his personal blog to thank the National Guard for handling “two days of violence, clashes and unrest” in Los Angeles in response to the protests against ICE.
“We have an incompetent Governor (Newscum) and Mayor (Bass) who were, as usual (just look at how they handled the fires, and now their VERY SLOW PERMITTING disaster. Federal permitting is complete!), unable to to handle the task. These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED,” he wrote.
There was just one problem: there weren't two days of violence, clashes, and unrest. Local reporting at the LA Times details that in a city with over 9,000 law enforcement officers, there were at most 100 protesters at any given time on Friday and Saturday… and almost none of them were actually in Los Angeles. They were in Paramount, 25 miles away from downtown Los Angeles. And the National Guard, despite Trump thanking them for a job well done, had not even been illegally deployed to Los Angeles yet.
The same journalists wrote in a later article for the Times that, “The clashes between authorities and protesters lasted for hours in both Paramount and nearby Compton, though it was far from widespread. The chaos covered the area directly around the Alondra Boulevard store, but it was enough to provide for dramatic TV video.”
There were indeed demonstrations - peaceful ones, with hundreds surrounding the Roybal federal building following reports that ICE raid led to people being illegally detained in its basement. And following a raid on the Paramount Home Depot, a protest broke out there, as well.
But everything that has happened since those days is very much a prime example of manufactured consent so Donald Trump can once again test the limits of what he can truly get away with as a dictator.
After manufacturing a riot that did not exist, tens of thousands of people showed up in droves to protest against not only the heartless deportations of innocent residents of Los Angeles, but against the Trump administration and ICE in general. Countless reporters and influencers showed up on the scene to show what they saw, such as Taylor Lorenz, Hasan Piker, and Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi. If you followed the day via passive algorithmic swiping on Twitter, Threads, or Instagram, you might have assumed the situation was a self-fulfilling prophecy: that by manufacturing a fake riot, Trump created a REAL one.
You would be incorrect.
And after speaking to a number of protesters myself, digging into the facts, and fact checking some erroneous reporting from CNN, I can safely say that Donald Trump wants you to think this is a warzone. He is lying, and the city of Los Angeles is at best defending itself from a corrupt administration looking to paint them as villains to a passive audience who believe what they see or read at face value.
THE MYTH OF THE RIOT
“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” Donald Trump wrote on his blog. “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated…Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction tells you all you have to know.”
Okay, Donald. Let’s take a look at some of the “pictures and videos” you’re talking about.
As you can see from the “pictures and videos,” including the clip from Hasan Piker’s stream, there is nothing really going on that could even charitably be called a riot. Is protesting and shutting down the US-101 freeway a riot? Is chanting and marching the streets of Los Angeles a riot? Let’s even go as far as to allow vandalism, such as the spray painting of “FUCK ICE” across the freeway. Is that, seriously, grounds for something we could consider rioting? Even with tens of thousands of people in the streets of Los Angeles, the statement is a vast over exaggeration compared to the reality.
According to LA Mayor Karen Bass, "I believe that these raids and now the federalization of troops to come into Los Angeles is an intentional effort to sow chaos…I do not want to see civil unrest take place in this city and I think bringing the National Guard in is provocative."
This is backed up by Governor Gavin Newsom, who has stated that, "We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed."
If you actually watch live streams of the event, talk to Angelenos who were there, or even pay attention to the news outside of protest coverage, you might begin to see a pattern emerging that selective videos and photos are being plucked out of context and coupled with inflammatory language to paint a picture that cannot be supported in reality.
“Crowd was peaceful,” said one anonymous protester who wanted to be referred to only by her age and profession, a 36-year-old producer that has lived in Los Angeles for 13 years. “Some were angry, understandably so, but peaceful…the National Guard does not need to be deployed. A better use of local resources would be rerouting key traffic to make space for protesters to protest.”
Later on, she made sure to specify exactly what she meant:
“I do not consider throwing water bottles violence, or police pushing back crowds as violence.”
“For the most part, everybody in the crowd was fine,” said photographer Ray Camacho, who provided us with many of the photos you’re seeing in this article (please give him a follow). “No one was being antagonistic. From what I saw, the crowd were all just waving flags…There were a lot of photographers. There were a lot of people driving around observing. There were those who were setting up a blockade against the police, just in case, but they weren’t throwing anything [at the police].”
“Hundreds of people were gathered with signs, food, water, and amenities for protesters,” an anonymous protester using the pseudonym Frances Molera said. “On the march from City Hall to Alameda & Temple, amidst chants of “chinga la migra,” “no justice, no peace,” and “whose streets? Our streets!,” protesters were determined yet calm. I did not witness a single instance of violence or vandalism, aside from a few tags of ‘Fuck ICE.’”
In regards to the presence of the National Guard, “Molera” continued:
“It’s painfully clear that the National Guard…are a deliberate show of power,” he said. “They are [only] a necessity if the goal is to intimidate the people. They are a necessity if the goal is to create a military state. They are a necessity if the goal is to manufacture a fiction in which common people standing up for their rights were somehow a violent insurrection.“
You may have seen a number of photos and videos of cars being set on fire, with countless posts being made to highlight the situation as a riot. And if you’ve got even an inkling of a conscience, you might feel bad for the owners of these cars. No civilian should have their cars burned in an act of protest without consent.
Except these aren’t civilian-owned cars.
They’re Waymo cars.
Waymo cars, in case you don’t know, are driverless robo-taxis available in major metropolitan cities across America. They are not privately owned by citizens, but rather by a corporation. As of this moment, nobody has been identified as a suspect in the burning of the Waymo cars, and none of the people we spoke to know who started the fires (Camacho even told us the cars were already burning when he arrived at that area of the protest).
But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out WHY protesters would burn Waymo cars.
Look at this report from 404 Media from back in April that reports that the LAPD has extracted footage from the driverless cars to be used as evidence for crimes. This Gizmodo report even goes as far as to straight up call the cars “narcs.” In my opinion, Waymo cars were targeted because they are victimless acts of vandalism for the protest to represent an act of defiance against an Orwellian police state.
The sight of cars on fire in city streets may be alarming; but these cars don’t really belong to anyone. Taylor Lorenz, who was on site at the protests, put it best when she wrote:
“As police begin to leverage tech like Waymo cars, protesters are becoming more aware of the surveillance infrastructure being built into modern life. Many activists have called attention to the fact that social platforms, like Meta, have handed user data over to the police. (In 2022, Facebook handed the data of a mother and daughter facing criminal charges for allegedly carrying out an illegal abortion to law enforcement). And more of the public is becoming aware of tools like facial recognition software, that the police have begun to use heavily.
When I asked a few protesters on the ground yesterday why they thought the Waymos were burning, they told me that the cars “spy” on people and could be recording protest footage. We still don’t know who exactly set fire to the cars or why, but it’s clear that more people are perceiving Waymos as an extension of the police surveillance infrastructure.”
It took until the morning of June 10 for any reported looting to occur in Los Angeles - well after the escalation by Donald Trump, with KTLA reporting a number of businesses being targeted in downtown LA. The government in Los Angeles directly blames this escalation on Trump:
“I will just take you back to last Thursday. Last Thursday, there was nothing happening in this town that called for the raids that took place on Friday. Nothing was happening. Nothing warranted the raids,” said Mayor Karen Bass.
AGAIN: these were issues that frankly did not exist in the early days of the protesting. There may have been vandalism. There may have been bottles thrown. You will see worse in Philly when the Eagles win. Los Angeles themselves see worse when the Dodgers win. I have seen worse at a Hoobastank concert than whatever was happening BEFORE Trump did a hostile takeover of the state’s National Guard.
INTERLUDE: WHAT EXACTLY IS A NON-LETHAL ROUND?
Some of the most horrific sights you may have seen from the streets of Los Angeles have to do with violence. Not from protesters, but from the police and ICE agents AGAINST protesters.
You may have seen sights like these, or the ones on Taylor Lorenz’ Instagram, detailing officers shooting “non-lethal rounds” into the crowds of protesters, or these, where aerial shots reveal cops on horseback beating and trampling a protester. You don’t have to dig deep at all to find that the extent of the violence was state-sponsored and focused on a predominantly unarmed population there to protest.
“All we had were cameras and water bottles,” Camacho told us. “They were wearing riot and protective gear. It was very scary. The police [had] non-lethal weaponry. Several of them had guns with rubber bullets, the large size ones, that you can fit into the palm of your hand. They would fire it off in non-consecutive bursts. They would point their guns and take aim. They were very intentional in their aim, they weren’t just shooting up in the air. Police were shooting rubber bullets into the crowd with accuracy and intent.”
So at this point, you may be wondering: what exactly is “non-lethal weaponry”? According to reporting from Wired en Espanol, the National Guard and police alike “were equipped with “nonlethal” weapons to disperse the protests. Among these devices are believed to be the PGL-65 (or P540) or the 37mm or 40mm Sage Deuce Projectile Launcher, “less lethal” ammunition launchers that law enforcement agencies have in their repertoire. Weapons such as those mentioned can launch tear gas grenades with a maximum range of nearly 500 feet. They can also fire kinetic impact grenades (rubber ammunition), “less lethal” fragmentation grenades (rubber balls that scatter when the munition explodes), stun grenades (explosions that cause loud noises and lights to disorient), and paint marker grenades (to mark demonstrators).”
I dunno. Sounds pretty lethal to me.
Firing these kinds of projectiles into the crowd is dangerous and irresponsible. As Wired points out, these projectiles fall into a grey area under the Geneva Convention, with kinetic projectiles being discouraged to be aimed at protesters’ faces, since they can result in “skull fractures and brain damage, eye damage (including permanent blindness) and even death,” and if you should downward, like from a rooftop, you can run the risk of causing this kind of damage.
“Targeting the torso can cause damage to vital organs and result in body penetration, especially when fired at close range,” they continue. “The caliber and velocity of the projectile, as well as the material from which they are made, will also influence the seriousness of the injury.”
“Nonlethal” generally means “less lethal,” and when you look at the damage caused by these projectiles, you will often find that they’re inches at most away from causing fatal injuries. It’s not at all clear why these are being used in the midst of protests like these and why mostly peaceful crowds are being targeted indiscriminately. What’s worse is that a plurality of these attacks appear to have been committed against journalists, with Reporters Without Borders reporting that on Sunday alone, 27 journalists were attacked by police or ICE. And SINCE that reporting, countless additional arrests of journalists have been made - including CNN reporter Jason Carroll just last night.
But when we spoke with “Frances Molera,” he revealed that he was in a crowd directly targeted by these rounds, describing an unmarked black SUV with police lights inside the vehicle creeping slowly toward the crowd before it quickly sped up, stopped four feet away, and lowered its window… revealing a “full-kit riot officer” with an orange gun, who proceeded to fire at Molera and his group twice. Molera alleges there was no reason for the provocation, and shortly after the crowd began chasing the vehicle, more rubber bullets were fired on the crowd, with one even grazing Molera’s face.
“If there’s anything I want to get across, it’s those in power are committing the initial acts of aggression,” Molera said. “It’s undeniable when you witness it firsthand. A crowd of peaceful people exercising their rights (including children and animals) does not deserve to be fired upon. There was no violence to precipitate their aggression.”
Despite the lack of evidence that these crowds have been aggressive enough to warrant it… things have allegedly gotten so bad that 700 MARINES HAVE BEEN DEPLOYED?!?!?!?
THE MARINES HAVE BEEN DEPLOYED?
Early on, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took Twitter and said:
“The @DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles. And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”
This has been a major panic point for a lot of folks in L.A.. Why on Earth would Marines be sent into Los Angeles during a non-riot? And then, you all probably received the push notification. First it was CNN. Then it was Aaron Parnas. Then it was ABC, Associated Press, virtually all media outlets reported that anonymous Trump Officials “confirmed” that 700 Marines had been deployed to Los Angeles. It was instant pandemonium. During Monday’s protest (which had a fraction of the protesters seen on Sunday), on Hasan Piker’s stream, he even kept an eye out for the Marines.
Early on Tuesday morning, 700 Marines were mobilized and sent from Twentynine Palms, CA toward Los Angeles, with Trump requesting 2,000 additional National Guardsmen. There’s just one tiny issue facing Trump:
There is no order.
According to my source with the Marines, there is currently no mission in place for the Marines to do anything - meaning that they can do what they always can do, which is stand guard in front of federal buildings… something a fraction of the National Guard is already doing.
Meaning: the Marines are being sent in to stand around and do nothing or, worse, sleep on floors like most of the National Guard allegedly are.
In order for the Marines to be able to control crowds, face protesters, or commit any of the acts the public is currently scared they’re going to do as a result of the vague nature of “Marines being deployed,” Donald Trump would have to invoke the Insurrection Act - an act we’ve discussed here many times, but as a reminder is an act allowing the president to deploy the military to suppress any rebellion or domestic violence.
I’m not going to say Trump WON’T invoke the act. But as of now, he has not - meaning that the Marines are, as of me writing this, en route to Los Angeles… with absolutely nothing to do.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR AMERICA? A Conclusion
As upsetting as all of this is, it’s only the beginning of what Trump has in store for America. David Frum at The Atlantic called it a “dress rehearsal.” But to me, this is already Phase 1 of his rise into full blown dictatorial control. NPR has reported that Trump used his presidential use of emergency powers eight times in his first 100 days alone - more than any modern president in the same time frame ever has. But they also point out that Trump’s actions fall into more traditionally fascistic behavior than ever:
“Presidents have often used emergency powers for things like freezing assets or imposing sanctions on specific foreign entities, or in times of notable crisis like after the 9/11 attacks or during the COVID-19 pandemic (a national emergency declared by Trump in his first term and later ended by Biden).
Legal experts say this time around, Trump is primarily using emergencies to try to carry out his domestic priorities more quickly than trying to pass laws through Congress — which is the traditional constitutional check on executive power.”
So now that there is a precedent for Trump to go above the states to deploy the National Guard, and straight up lie about riots that do not exist, things are likely going to get worse before they get better. Almost all of Trump’s executive orders and emergency declarations have been challenged by the courts, and many are making their way up to the Supreme Court. Time will tell on whether it will matter at all, but this is a sign that Donald Trump is every inch the dictator he’s been accused of being - and more.
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