Defying California Leaders, Trump Vows to ‘Liberate’ Los Angeles
“The welfare of the people has often been the alibi of tyrants.”
— Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)
I. June 7, 2025: The Arrival
On Saturday evening, National Guard convoys entered Los Angeles under orders from President Donald J. Trump. Troops deployed across Compton and Paramount. Helicopters circled the Sixth Street Viaduct. Federal uniforms appeared near downtown — unrequested, uncoordinated.
Their arrival was not supported by Governor Gavin Newsom, who wrote within 24 hours:
“This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”
“Rescind the order. Return control to California.”
Mayor Karen Bass echoed that alarm:
“Deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids is a chaotic escalation. The fear people are feeling in our city right now is very real.”
Earlier in the week, ICE raids had targeted undocumented workers across Southern California, sparking public protest and political pushback. The official stance of city and state governments was clear: no emergency existed.
But the deployment proceeded anyway.
II. The Justification: Language as Weapon
At 3:42 PM PST, Trump posted:
“A once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals… insurrectionist mobs are attacking our Federal Agents.”
By evening, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced mobilization:
“The @DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY… if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized.”
Conservative leaders joined the rhetorical escalation:
- Stephen Miller: “Insurrection.”
- Sen. JD Vance: “Foreign nationals… waving foreign flags and assaulting law enforcement.”
This language was not metaphor. It was legal pretext.
By invoking 10 U.S.C. §12406, Trump claimed federal authority over the California National Guard, despite the law’s requirement that such action be triggered “through the governor of the state.” Governor Newsom’s letter confirms:
“This directive did not issue through the governor… it was neither approved nor ordered by the State of California.”
The result is not only a jurisdictional conflict — it is a jurisprudential rupture.
III. July 1, 2024: The Legal Engine Activates
Just one year ago, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Trump v. United States, a decision that reshaped the balance of power between law and presidency.
Holding: “The President is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority… and presumptively immune for all official acts.”
(Trump v. United States, 600 U.S. ___ (2024), Slip Opinion pp. 5–9)
In that moment, The Intellectualist warned:
“This is a doctrine of procedural laundering: the act becomes lawful not because it is just, but because it is routed through the presidency.”
Trump’s legal team immediately filed motions to overturn his New York felony convictions and to dismiss charges related to the fake electors plot, arguing that those actions were “official acts.” If accepted, this would mean that even a scheme to subvert electoral outcomes could fall under presidential immunity, simply because the president declared it part of his role.
The Court’s ruling did not authorize dictatorship — but it created a mechanism.
“If presidential power can be used to immunize criminal behavior retroactively, then all restraints become optional, and all accountability becomes negotiable.”
IV. The Feedback Loop Between Rhetoric and Force
The present standoff in Los Angeles is not just a military or political event — it is a real-time application of the Trump v. United States framework.
The president declares a crisis.
He invokes a statute.
He deploys force.
He frames it all as “official.”
No Insurrection Act was invoked.
No coordination with the state occurred.
No oversight mechanisms appear available — not judicial, not congressional, not electoral.
And under the Supreme Court’s ruling, that may be enough.
Governor Newsom’s formal protest, issued via letter and social media, emphasizes this danger:
“There is currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles… this order risks seriously escalating the situation.”
Mayor Bass reinforced:
“We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved.”
V. The Architecture of Immunity
The Court drew a critical distinction between official acts, which enjoy immunity, and unofficial acts, which do not. But as Justice Sotomayor warned in her dissent:
“If the president can define his own actions as official merely by saying so, then the law becomes a function of language, not constraint.”
This concern is no longer theoretical. Trump’s current deployment order now functions as both policy and shield.
From your own July 3, 2024 editorial:
“The structure of American democracy is built on three assumptions:
(1) that the rule of law constrains power,
(2) that institutions will check abuses,
(3) that citizens can trust in electoral legitimacy.
Trump v. United States places all three in jeopardy.”
VI. Historical Patterns, Repeating Structures
In 1933, Adolf Hitler used the Reichstag Fire to justify emergency decrees that suspended civil liberties. These decrees were followed by the Enabling Act, which gave the Chancellor unilateral legislative power.
As historian Timothy Snyder cautions:
“Authoritarian regimes do not invent new powers. They weaponize emergencies to entrench impunity.”
This is not Germany. But helicopters now fly over Boyle Heights. And the word “insurrection” is being used to justify the suppression of protests, not the defense of democracy.
VII. The Present Tense of Precedent
This is not speculation.
This is not theory.
This is not retroactive.
This is happening.
Federal troops are occupying a major U.S. city without state consent, under a legal theory that declares all presidential actions “immune” once categorized as “official.” The governor has objected. The mayor has protested. But the deployment continues.
And under the Court’s current logic, no one may be able to stop it — unless the language changes.
“The line between order and chaos is language.”
That line has now been crossed.
Note:
This article reflects the legal and political status as of June 8, 2025, during the active deployment of federalized forces in Los Angeles County. All primary sources, statutes, legal rulings, and statements have been verified against official records.
