Trump sends in troops in make-or-break moment for his immigration crackdown
Donald Trump's first presidency ended with city centres turned to blackened ghost towns.
They looked not unlike Los Angeles on Sunday morning, where rioters had left graffiti and the ashes of burned cars in protest
Five years ago it was a different cause. The US endured a long, hot summer of riots after police murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis, kneeling on his neck as he protested that he could not breathe.
'Looks so familiar,' Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference and a confidant of the US president, posted on social media. 'It's almost as if we saw the same tactics with a different radical topic and diff logo wear.'
In 2020, Mr Trump threatened to take matters into his own hands if the country's governors did not stamp out violence, promising to deploy armed forces to quell the violence.
Several states took heed and used their own authority to deploy their National Guard forces.
This time around, as his immigration service takes a new, tougher tack in rounding up illegal immigrants, the president has not waited. With Los Angeles on fire, and protests growing in New York, he issued his presidential memorandum on Saturday night, in an effort to snuff out the violence before it could spread further.
'In the wake of this violence, California's feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens,' is how Karoline Leavitt, Mr Trump's press secretary announced it.
'That is why President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.'
One of the difficulties in 2020 was navigating the legal limits on presidents deploying troops on their own soil.
Then Mr Trump floated using the nuclear option and invoking the Insurrection Act.
It was last used in 1992, when George HW Bush used it to send troops into Los Angeles to control rioting at the request of California's governor after four white police officers were acquitted of beating up Rodney King, a black motorist.
Using it without the consent of the state governor brings a whole other level of political jeopardy.
Trump 2.0 has had time to find alternative tools. For four years his lawyers and advisers have planned for their return to power, legal-proofing policies that came unstuck in the courts first time round.
So on Saturday night, they apparently used a different course of action and a little-known provision with Title 10 of the US Code on Armed Forces. It allows the deployment of National Guard forces if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States.' It has not been used since 1965.
The stakes this time are high.
Mr Trump's opponents have struggled to cope with his 'flood the zone' strategy, unleashing executive orders, presidential proclamations and Truth Social posts at a torrential rate.
The result is that Democrats in Congress and on the street have failed to coalesce into a united opposition.
That could be changing with raids on factories, food trucks and the parking lots where foreign workers congregate to pick up a day's work on building sites. They offer a focal point in an already febrile debate over immigration, the freedom to protest, and the limits of presidential power.
Los Angeles was calm overnight on Saturday, but more protests are expected on Sunday afternoon. Immigration groups in New York also have events lined up on Sunday and Monday.
Against that backdrop, Mr Trump and his government of loyalists is gambling that sending in troops will end the trouble before it can spread and prevent months of riots, not create an even bigger conflagration.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
7 minutes ago
- Fox News
WNBA champ seemingly calls for Trump's impeachment after US strikes Iranian nuclear facilities
New York Liberty guard Natasha Cloud seemingly reacted to the U.S. military's strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday night. Cloud, a WNBA champion with the Washington Mystics and three-time All-Defense Team member, fired off a few posts on social media after the strikes were announced. "A sad sad day, Cloud wrote on X. "Grounds for impeachment," she added. Cloud also retweeted a post that read, "the three branches of government don't operate under a system of checks & balances anymore … democracy or autocracy?" On Instagram, Cloud shared Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's, D-N.Y., criticism of Trump's actions. "The President's disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X. "He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. "It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment." Cloud is far from one to hold off on opinions of the president and the state of the country. She reacted in February to President Donald Trump's decision to eliminate several government DEI programs. "The systems of power are working as they always were intended to work," Cloud told The Associated Press. "And it's time to break down a system that has only been about White men." Cloud added that she believes the country is putting "money over people." "I understand the business aspect and I understand the human aspect," Cloud said. "Too often this country has put the human aspect aside, and put profit and money over people." Cloud doubled down on her remarks in a social media post days later. Thing is I'm not soft, & words don't hurt me lol are we 5? it still remains people over profit," she wrote on X. "If yall truly about being unbiased… Google search any overseas media coverage of what's happening in America. "Then come back to me and tell me the whole world crazy." Trump announced on Saturday night the U.S. had struck a trio of nuclear facilities in Iran. The president ordered U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to carry out the strikes against Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities. "Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Fox News
7 minutes ago
- Fox News
AOC, other angry Democrats, call for Trump impeachment over attack on Iran
Progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a handful of other Democrats quickly floated the prospect of impeaching President Donald Trump for launching a military strike on Iran without Congressional authorization. "The President's disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers," the four-term congresswoman from New York wrote on social media Saturday night, soon after the president announced the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Ocasio-Cortez charged that Trump "has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment." Democrat Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois also argued that the president's order to bomb Iran's nuclear sites without seeking Congressional approval could be considered an "unambiguous impeachable offense." Casten, a four-term representative whose district covers southwestern Chicago and surrounding suburbs, wrote Saturday night on social media that "this is not about the merits of Iran's nuclear program….to be clear, I do not dispute that Iran is a nuclear threat." But he highlighted that "no president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense." "I'm not saying we have the votes to impeach," Casten added. "I'm saying that you DO NOT do this without Congressional approval." The calls for impeachment are the most visible, and furthest reaching, representation of the party's anger with Trump for taking unilateral action against Iran. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the chamber, wrote that the president had "failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East." "Donald Trump shoulders complete and total responsibility for any adverse consequences that flow from his unilateral military action," Jeffries added in a statement. While the executive branch technically doesn't have the legal authority to order a foreign military attack without the approval of Congress, previous presidents, including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Trump during his first term, launched comparable military actions in Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iran. Congress has not actually declared war since 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, and legal scholars have long been divided on whether the president has the authority to unilaterally launch a military strike.
CNN
7 minutes ago
- CNN
How Trump quietly made the historic decision to launch strikes in Iran
By the time President Donald Trump was milling about his golf club in New Jersey on Friday evening, the planes were about to be in the air. To onlookers at the club, Trump showed little anxiety about his decision to authorize airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities that could have profound ramifications both on US national security and his own presidential legacy. The B-2 stealth bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker busters were preparing to take off at midnight from their base in Missouri, destined for Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Another set of planes was heading west, a deliberate attempt at misdirection as Trump demanded complete secrecy for his momentous decision. As Trump escorted around Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, to an event for new members being held in one of the clubhouse's dining rooms, he was loose and — at least in public — in an easygoing mood, people who saw him said. 'I hope he's right about the AI,' Trump joked at one point, gesturing to his guest. Twenty-four hours later, Trump was in the basement Situation Room at the White House, wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat as he watched the strikes he had approved days earlier, codenamed 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' play out in real time on the facility's wall of monitors. 'Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,' he said a few hours later during late-night remarks from the White House Cross Hall. 'Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.' The decision to go ahead with strikes thrusts the United States directly into the Middle East conflict, raising worries about Iranian reprisals and questions about Trump's endgame. It came after days of public deliberation, as Trump alternated between issuing militaristic threats against Iran on social media and holding private concerns that a military strike could drag the US into prolonged war. Yet by Thursday, the same day he instructed his press secretary to announce he was giving Iran two weeks to return to the negotiating table before deciding on a strike, allies who spoke to him said it was clear that the decision was already made. Speaking on NBC Sunday, Vice President JD Vance said Trump retained the ability to call off the strikes 'until the very last minute.' But he elected to go ahead. Administration officials went to great lengths to conceal their planning. Deferring the strike decision for a fortnight appeared in keeping with the mission's attempts at diversion – a tactic designed to obscure the attack plans, even though Trump held off giving a final go-ahead until Saturday, according to senior US officials. By the end of the week, US officials had come to believe Iran was not ready to return to the table and strike a satisfactory nuclear deal after Europeans leaders met with their Iranian counterparts on Friday, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump's two-week public deadline lasted only 48 hours before he took one of the most consequential actions of his presidency. The operation began at midnight ET Friday, with the B-2 bombers launching from Missouri on an 18-hour journey that was the planes' longest mission in more than two decades, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Sunday morning Pentagon briefing. 'This is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation so that we could be ready when the president of the United States called,' Hegseth said alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. 'It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection and the highest of operational security.' Discussions about potential options for American strikes on Iran began in earnest between Trump and members of his national security team during a weekend retreat at Camp David in early June, where CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed Trump on US assessments that Israel was prepared to imminently begin strikes. The options for Trump to join Israel in its campaign had been drawn up in the months beforehand, with the president's advisers having already worked out differences among themselves over what options were on the menu for him to decide from. In the week before he made the final call for US stealth bombers and Navy submarines to target three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump held briefings each day with his national security team in the basement Situation Room to discuss attack plans — and to weigh the potential consequences. Trump came to the secret talks with two principal concerns: that a US attack be decisive in taking out the highly fortified sites, including the underground Fordow enrichment facility; and that any action he took did not pull the US into the type of prolonged, deadly war he promised to avoid as a candidate. On the first point, officials were confident in the US bunker-busting bombs' ability to penetrate the facility, even though such an action hadn't been tested previously. Caine said Sunday that the initial assessment shows 'extremely severe damage and destruction' to Iran's three nuclear sites, though he noted it will take time to determine the ultimate impact to the country's nuclear capabilities. (Iranian officials downplayed the impact of the US strikes to their nuclear facilities on Sunday.) But on the second question of a prolonged war, officials could hardly promise the president that Iran's reprisals — which could include targeting American assets or personnel in the region — wouldn't draw the US into a new quagmire. 'As the president has directed, made clear, this is most certainly not open-ended,' Hegseth said Sunday. 'Doesn't mean it limits our ability to respond. We will respond if necessary.' The uncertainly seemed to give Trump pause, and throughout the week he said in public he hadn't yet made a decision, even if behind the scenes it appeared to Trump's advisers that his mind was made up. Trump departed his Bedminster golf club Saturday afternoon and returned to the White House for a scheduled 'national security meeting' — travel that was unusual for the president on a weekend but was previewed on his daily scheduled released the day prior. The US conveyed to Iran through back-channel discussions that the strikes Trump ordered Saturday would be contained and that no further strikes were planned going forward, according to two people familiar with the discussions. But Trump's public message Saturday night after the strikes — warning of 'far greater' future US attacks if Iran retaliates — underscored the unpredictable period he is entering in the Middle East. In April, Trump issued an ultimatum to Iran on a potential nuclear agreement, warning Tehran to strike a deal within 60 days – by mid-June. At the same time, Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on attacking Iran so he could give talks the time and space to show progress. A first round of talks was held in mid-April between the US and Tehran in Oman, led by Trump's foreign envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Despite optimistic notes sounded following the conversations, there was little progress toward an actual nuclear deal. On June 8 – less than a week before Trumps' 60-day deadline was set to expire – he huddled with his advisers at Camp David, where he was presented with potential options on Iran. The next day, Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone. Several weeks earlier, Netanyahu had told a group of US lawmakers that Israel was going to strike Iran — and he was not seeking permission from the US to do so. Sixty-one days after Trump's ultimatum, Israel launched unprecedented strikes on Iran, targeting its nuclear program and military leaders. 'Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don't know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61,' Trump told CNN's Dana Bash after the Israeli strikes began. But senior Trump officials also initially distanced themselves from the attack, issuing statements that Israel took unilateral action and the US was not involved. As Israel continued its military campaign in Israel, Trump traveled to Alberta, Canada, for a G-7 summit, only to return to Washington early 'because of what's going on in the Middle East,' the White House said. Trump spent much of the past week meeting in the Situation Room with his national security team to review attack plans and their potential consequences. On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read a statement dictated by Trump: 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' But there were signs that diplomacy was not moving forward. Witkoff made attempts at meeting his Iranian interlocutor, Araghchi, with little luck. Ater European leaders met with Iran's foreign minister on Friday in Geneva, US officials felt it appeared the Iranians would not sit down with the US without Trump asking Netanyahu to stop Israel's attacks — something Trump was not willing to do, sources said. That afternoon, on his way to his New Jersey club, Trump told reporters that his two-week timeframe was the 'maximum' amount of time, and he could make up his mind sooner. Ahead of Saturday's strikes, the US gave Israel a heads up it was going to attack. Netanyahu held a five-hour meeting with top Israeli officials that lasted through the US strikes, according to a source familiar with the meeting. Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone again afterward, and the Israeli prime minister praised the US attack in a video message, saying it was carried out 'with complete operational coordination between the IDF and the United States military.' The US had also notified some Gulf partners that it was ready to strike Iran within the coming days, but it did not specify targets and time frame, according to a source familiar with the matter. The message was delivered verbally, the source said, and there was a meeting at the White House where some of these Gulf partners were told. Trump and his team were in contact with top congressional Republicans before Saturday's strikes, but top Democrats were not told of his plans until after the bombs had dropped, according to multiple people familiar with the plans. Hegseth said Sunday that congressional leaders were notified 'immediately' after planes were out of Iranian airspace. The operation began at midnight Eastern Time Friday into Saturday morning. Caine said that B-2 bombers launched from the US, some headed West as a decoy while the rest 'proceeded quietly to the East with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight.' The unprecedented US operation involved seven stealth B2 bombers. All told, over 125 aircraft were involved, including the B2s, refueling tankers, reconnaissance planes and fighter jets. At approximately 5 p.m. ET, Caine said, a US submarine 'launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets' at the Isfahan nuclear site. And shortly after, at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET, or 2:10 a.m. local time, the lead B-2 bomber plane launched two bunker-buster bombs at Fordow nuclear site, Caine said, and the 'remaining bombers then hit their targets.' Those additional targets were struck, Caine said, 'between 6:40 p.m. ET and 7:05 p.m. ET.' The US military then 'began its return home,' Caine said, noting that no shots were fired by Iran at the US on the way in or out. After US planes had left Iranian airspace, Trump revealed the attack to the world on his social media platform, Truth Social. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,' Trump wrote, adding that 'a full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow.'
