“If he can successfully militarize LA without significant political consequences, Baltimore is next. Then we’re looking at Chicago. Then we’re looking at D.C.,” said Angela Angel, a senior advisor at Black Lives Matter PAC.
The White House remains defiant after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of U.S. Marines in Los Angeles amid protests against Trump’s mass immigration raids. The escalation of military use on civilians presents serious concerns about constitutionally protected free speech and public safety, particularly in cities that are predominantly Black and Brown.
The president has not ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act, a wartime law that gives the president narrow authority to use the military domestically, and vowed that any ongoing protesters in American cities would be “met with equal or greater force.”
Elected officials and advocates tell theGrio they are concerned that Trump’s targeting of LA is likely a precursor for what is to come to majority Black and Brown cities, many of whom are led by Black mayors.
“If he can successfully militarize LA without significant political consequences, Baltimore is next. Then we’re looking at Chicago. Then we’re looking at D.C.–any city that dares to protect its most vulnerable residents is on his chopping block,” said Angela Angel, a senior advisor at Black Lives Matter PAC.
On Wednesday, Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. The Trump spokesperson particularly took aim at Bass for her criticisms of the administration and “blaming” them and “brave law enforcement officers” for the violence in the city. Leavitt accused Bass of embarking on “one of the most outrageous campaign of lies this country has ever seen from an elected official.”
Critics say Trump’s deployment of military to LA and the pointed criticisms against Bass, a Black woman, is by design.
“The targeting of Los Angeles is strategic. LA is a sanctuary city with a strong community organizing infrastructure. There’s a history of resistance that is rooted in LA. It’s led by a Black woman, all of those things Trump is looking at,” Angel told theGrio.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., similarly told theGrio that the targeting of her city of Los Angeles is part of the Trump administration’s attempt to “put us in our place [and] to exercise power.”
“When they look at LA, a sanctuary city that they’ve never liked, they’re saying we have to show we can control a Black mayor, a woman who is the mayor, and we can take it on,” said Waters. The congresswoman took note of some of the criticisms Mayor Bass received from the city’s firefighters during January’s deadly wildifres, suggesting that the administration likely saw it as a vulnerability to exploit. “I think all of that is in their calculation,” she said.
Svante Myrick, president and CEO of People For the American Way, said Trump’s choosing to execute mass immigration raids in cities like LA, Chicago, Boston and New York was political from the start.
“There’s undocumented workers at the mega farms in Kristi Noem’s North Dakota or Josh Hawley’s Missouri and Tom Cotton’s Arkansas. But the ICE raids aren’t beginning there,” Myrick told theGrio. “He wants to provoke protesters enough that he can break the law–sending the Marines and nationalizing the National Guard–when there’s no emergency.”
Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, one of several Black mayors who could potentially see a showdown with the Trump administration over its mass deportation program, said the White House has shown that “it is not serious about public safety.”
“They’re more interested in portraying Black and brown people as agitators and criminals,” Mayor Scott told theGrio. “If they actually cared about making our cities safer, they’d do what we’ve done in Baltimore: work with communities and police to bring down crime and stop violence before it starts.”
Critics say they are also alarmed by President Trump’s heightened language when referring to the protests in Los Angeles. On Monday, he wrote on Truth Social, “If they spit, we will hit.” He added, “I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before.”
“It’s a threat and a promise,” said Myrick, who noted that the president’s comments mirrored similar remarks he made in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter uprisings when Trump wrote on then-Twitter, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“He’s promising disproportionality from the state…He’s promising death sentences for misdemeanors,” argued Myrick. He accused of Trump, who infamously threatened to sick “vicious dogs” on BLM protesters, of being “aroused by the idea of using the United States military to brutalize Black people in inner cities.”
Trump and administration officials have repeatedly pointed to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 as proof that Democrats are incapable of handling unrest in their cities. “We’re not going to let a repeat of 2020 happen,” said Kristi Noem, Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security.
Angel of Black Lives Matter PAC slammed the Trump administration for trying to “reshape and reframe” the 2020 uprisings.
“What happened in 2020 was millions of Americans took to the streets, and they demanded an end to police violence after watching a man being murdered right on camera,” Angel told theGrio. “It wasn’t riots…It was peaceful for most of the protesters.”
Angel said that it was law enforcement and “white supremacist” interlopers like the controversial Kyle Rittenhouse who “introduced violence” to the 2020 protests. She said the Trump administration is trying to justify “military occupation” and using 2020 as a way to distract and frame “community defense as domestic terrorism.”
“Military occupation is not a response to protest. It’s authoritarianism, plain and simple, and that’s what we’re seeing,” she said.
Brandon Weathersby, a spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century, said the president is ultimately looking for “an excuse for military crackdowns on American citizens.” He told theGrio, “But when it comes to fulfilling his promises to solve the real crises facing families like rising costs, housing instability, or health care access, he’s missing in action.”
Weathersby added, “Trump’s America is about turning the military on Americans, while cutting food assistance for hungry children and health care. Americans deserve safety, dignity, and a president focused on making their lives better, not threatening them and their constitutional rights.”
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Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://thegrio.com/2025/06/12/trumps-military-deployment-los-angeles-dangerous-prelude-black-and-brown-cities/
