A Wrong Name, a Real Scandal – JD Vance Insults California and Pours Fuel on the Fire

Los Angeles – It wasn’t just a slip of the tongue. It was a political signal – deliberate, calculated, and as serious as what it unleashed. When US Vice President JD Vance appeared Friday at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles, surrounded by federal agents, soldiers, and cameras, he spoke about immigration, law and order – and about a man he referred to as “Jose Padilla.” He meant Senator Alex Padilla, California’s first Latino in the US Senate. But Vance called him by the name of a terror suspect from the Bush era. Coincidence? Hardly. “I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here today to ask a question,” Vance said with a mocking tone – a clear reference to the scene a week earlier, when Padilla was tackled and handcuffed by security forces at a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after protesting the immigration raids. To Vance, it was “theater.” To many others, it was a show of intimidation. An attack on democratic rights – and now also on the identity of an elected representative. Vance, himself a former senator, knows Padilla personally. That he would choose the name “Jose Padilla” – that of a man arrested in 2002 under suspicion of terrorism and later sentenced to a long prison term under questionable circumstances – is not just demeaning but historically ignorant. “That wasn’t a mistake,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X. “That was a deliberate, insidious allusion.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass responded sharply: “How dare you accuse city officials of encouraging violence? We kept the peace.” Senator Padilla’s spokesperson, Tess Oswald, also left no doubt about the vice president’s intent: “He should focus on demilitarizing our city instead of making cheap shots.”

The background to the escalation is the tense situation in Los Angeles after weeks of protests against nationwide immigration raids. Since June 6, people in Southern California have taken to the streets after hundreds of immigrants – many without warning or legal hearings – were detained. The Trump administration responded with force: 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines were sent into the city. Armored vehicles now patrol the streets. The situation resembles martial law – in the middle of an American metropolis. JD Vance called the deployments “necessary” to “enforce the law.” According to him, anyone criticizing that is merely seeking the spotlight. But it’s not just protesters raising the accusation that Trump and his allies intentionally escalated tensions in Los Angeles. Judges are also questioning the legality of the military presence and are examining potential violations of the Posse Comitatus Act – the law prohibiting domestic use of the military without express authorization from Congress. Meanwhile, criticism from California is growing louder. Governor Newsom accuses Trump and Vance of “eroding democratic norms” and turning state authority into a tool of political repression. And while Vance poses for photos among uniformed officers, Newsom publicly urges the vice president to visit the victims of the devastating January wildfires – instead of chasing headlines.

That Vance didn’t say a word about the fires in his speech – let alone about the 40 billion dollars in relief aid that Trump is currently withholding from California due to a personal dispute with Newsom – was another slap in the face to many Californians. Instead of empathy: polemics. Instead of de-escalation: provocation. And so, this visit leaves no memory of thoughtful crisis management. But rather of a vice president who defames the ethnic identity of a senator while troops march behind him. An image that burns itself in – as a warning. And a reminder of what’s at stake.