Many millions out against Trump

Trump’s dictatorial tendencies were on display on 14 June during the North-Korean-style military parade in Washington DC. Ostensibly commemorating the founding of the US Army, it coincided with his own birthday. Trump threatened to use “very heavy force” against any protesters in Washington.

It didn’t rain on Trump’s military parade on 14 June, but the numbers weren’t great. Lots of empty seats, and an expected crowd of 200,000 proved much smaller. Far more popular were the “No Kings” anti Trump rallies in over 2,000 towns and cities nationwide. The organisers say over eleven million attended, twice the number of April’s similar protest.

Despite warnings from state officials not to turn up, thousands went to the “No Kings” rally outside the Minnesota Capitol in St Paul to show they would not succumb to far right intimidation.

The Trump administration may become even more unpopular in the coming months as the effects of the tariff antics, cuts in Medicaid, and DOGE depredations of public services sink in. The indication from last weekend is that millions of Americans aren’t going to stand for the increased state repression. A mass movement is developing, and we must hope for trade unionists and socialists to move it in the right direction.

Donald Trump’s power grab in the run-up to 14 June — sending the National Guard and US Marines into Los Angeles — is the latest episode in what satirists have dubbed the Reichstag Reality Show. Local protests in a relatively small part of the city against indiscriminate arrests by ICE agents were blown up out of all proportion by Fox News and other Trump friendly media to justify disproportionate and unnecessary use of force.

“Protest Porn” showing a couple of cars on fire and someone throwing a brick were on a continual loop on these channels, suggesting that the whole of LA was aflame. Much was also made by the right wing media of protesters flying Mexican flags as if this somehow represented an “invasion”, following the Trump nativist narrative.

One Republican politician even posted a picture of blond surfers on a California beach in the 1960s with the implication that they had now been “displaced” by swarthy aliens from south of the border. Anyway, California was part of Mexico until conquered in war by the USA, so who are the invaders?

Trial run

This LA crackdown can be seen as a trial run for Trump invoking the Insurrection Act, something he’s been threatening to do since 2020 at least. One possible timing for him to use it would be early autumn of next year, to scupper the mid-term elections, which could lead to the Republicans losing one or both chambers of Congress.

Chief instigator of the LA exercise is Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and notorious white racist. Miller wasn’t happy with ICE arrest rates. “What do you mean you’re going after criminals?” he allegedly told ICE officials at a recent top level meeting. Too time consuming, and not getting deportation numbers up! More indiscriminate arrests were what he wanted — at least 1,200 to 1,500 a day — to meet a total of between half and one million deportations annually. Journalist Terry Moran was suspended by ABC for saying on social media that Miller was “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.” Sadly that’s the price you pay for honest reporting in the USA today! Journalists on the scene in LA itself were attacked by “law enforcement” with pepper spray and rubber bullets.

The regime denounced protesters for wearing masks, but that didn’t stop ICE masking up and removing their identification badges. They went to hardware stores, car-washes, garment factories, even lifted nannies looking after kids in the park, and stuck them in detention centres, often without water and sanitary arrangements. No wonder this brought people out onto the streets. Where is my parent, grandparent, partner, neighbour?

Tellingly, Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, has defined habeas corpus (the right not to be detained without due process) as “the right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country”. When senior US senator Alex Padilla interrupted Noem’s press conference to question her, he was not only removed from the conference, but then wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by her goons. A week earlier SEIU trade unionist David Huerta was arrested for allegedly interfering in one of ICE’s raids.

Trump has had the nerve to label the LA protesters “insurrectionists” when at the start of his second term he pardoned 1,500 actual insurrectionists who’d tried to overthrow the government during the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol.

He took the National Guard under federal control to deploy in LA, against the express wishes of a State governor. It was the first time that had happened since 1965. On that occasion it was done to protect civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama. This time round it was to repress similar protests.

The military jamboree on 14 June was particularly despicable in view of Trump’s own bone-spurs draft dodge and his low regard for the military rank and file as “suckers” and “losers”. Independent thinkers in the high command were able to resist some of the demands for self aggrandisement during the first Trump term, but those have retired or been sacked since. Appointing Dan Caine as chief of staff, Trump claimed Caine had told him: “Yes, sir. I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir”.

Hortman

Minnesota State Congresswoman Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed on 15 June. Another Democrat politician, State Senator John Hoffman, and his wife were shot several times in their home a few miles away. Vance Boelter, who may have had a far-right and religious motivation for the attacks, has been charged. Police found a list naming Hortman and Hoffman and including dozens of other Democrats from Minnesota such as Gov. Walz, Rep Ilhan Omar, Senator Tina Smith, and state Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Time and again the courts have ruled that administration’s actions as unconstitutional only for the rulings to be swerved or nullified. With Amy Coney Barrett proving more independent-minded than Trump can have expected when nominating her to the Supreme Court, it is not ruled out that the courts can significantly check Trump, but, if they do, the value will depend on the ability of an independent movement to exploit the opportunity.