While California continues to fight for its constitutional rights and the legal tug-of-war over the National Guard deployment drags on, a different picture emerges on the streets of Los Angeles – one of a government choosing escalation – strategic, demonstrative, intentional. It is Kristi Noem, Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, who gives this approach a name. “This is a blueprint,” she says. Not just for L.A., but for the entire country.
Her words come at a moment when the political and legal order of the United States is visibly unraveling. Just hours after a federal judge ruled that the president must return control of California’s National Guard to Governor Gavin Newsom, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the decision – without explanation, without debate, without public hearing. The official document justifying this sweeping intervention is barely more than a single page, filed under the dry label “Dkt. No. 10.1” and reads more like a bureaucratic memo than a constitutional ruling. The court, composed of Judges Bennett, Miller, and Sung, bluntly stated that it had granted the government’s emergency motion – Judge Breyer’s restraining order is “temporarily stayed pending further order.” As justification, the court cited a precedent that bears little relevance to the current case. The hearing? Scheduled for June 17 – via Zoom. The rule of law? In limbo. One could almost call the paper a scribbled note – if it weren’t addressing fundamental questions of separation of powers and democracy.
And so they continue to march – the 2,000 National Guard troops and soon 700 Marines – in a city where the protests, though loud, have remained largely peaceful. “This is only the beginning,” Noem declares. Thousands of raids are planned. Hundreds have already been arrested – most for failing to comply with dispersal orders. The tone? Harsher than ever. The legal foundation? Deeply questionable. The message? Unmistakable. Anyone who opposes this administration – be they immigrants, demonstrators, or senators – will face consequences. That played out Thursday, when U.S. Senator Alex Padilla of California was physically removed from Noem’s press conference for attempting to ask a question. “If this is how they treat a sitting senator,” Padilla later said, “I can only imagine how they treat farmworkers or housekeepers.”
This is the moment when domestic policy becomes strategy. The images from Los Angeles – of mounted police, tear gas, and arrests in the streets – are no exception, but part of a plan. In Washington, officials speak openly of expanding similar troop deployments to other cities. In Texas, 5,000 Guard troops are already on standby. What was once an exception is becoming the norm. What was once a last resort is becoming standard practice.
Governor Gavin Newsom warns of a “shadow reconstruction of the state,” a rupture in the federal balance. And indeed – when uniformed forces act on encrypted app commands against civilians, when ministers dodge accountability and build atmospheres of threat, when even senators are removed by force – this is no longer just a political dispute. What remains is a test. Of institutions. Of decency. Of democracy itself.
Kristi Noem has already answered that test. She has no need for debate. No procedures. No nuance. She has a plan. And that plan begins where fear resides – amid sirens, arrests, and the belief that force is everything. It is a plan for control, not for peace. A plan for submission, not for order. And it bears the name of a democracy that no longer recognizes itself.
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