Angela Angel, a senior advisor at Black Lives Matter PAC, told theGrio that Americans must not “fall for the bait and switch.”
In the days preceding President Donald Trump‘s decision to send the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles amid mass protests against his administration’s immigration raids, much of the national political conversation focused on Trump’s very nasty “breakup” with billionaire Elon Musk and his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which threatens to cut more than $1 trillion in health care, food assistance and education.
Some critics of the president believe the chaos in Los Angeles, inflamed by the presence of U.S. military troops on the ground, is meant to be a major diversion from his and the Republican Party’s unpopular policies.
“Donald Trump, cornered by his own failures – from pushing a heartless bill that would rip health care away from 16 million Americans, to raising costs from his reckless tariffs, to waging war with Elon Musk – Trump is desperately seeking a distraction,” said U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday. “Instead of de-escalating, Donald Trump is pouring fuel into a fire, hoping for an explosion, to distract from what he’s really doing.”
Schumer said the “One Big Beautiful Bill’s” major “billionaire” tax cuts will “explode the debt and sink America’s economic future.” The longtime senator continued, “He is spiking costs for everyday Americans through his reckless tariff war. And Donald Trump hopes nobody is paying attention.”
U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., made a similar argument on MSNBC.
“A couple of weeks before, we were battling with Republicans about this reconciliation bill, $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid,” said Kamlager-Dove, who noted that Republicans in the House voted to advance the “One Big Beautiful Bill” “in the middle of the night because they knew it was so bad they didn’t want to talk about it.”
“And then we have the divorce without a prenup that went viral between Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” added the California congresswoman, whose district represents parts of Los Angeles. “So we needed a major distraction from the major chaos coming out of this administration, and Donald Trump decides to produce that chaos in the city of Los Angeles by unlawfully deploying these troops.”
According to a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, 53% of Americans oppose Trump’s budget and spending bill, compared to 27% who support the legislation.
Angela Angel, a senior advisor at Black Lives Matter PAC, told theGrio that the American public and the media shouldn’t “fall for the bait and switch”– something Trump has long been credited with being skillful at.
“His misinformation and disinformation campaigns are very successful, and unfortunately, they’re very successful in our communities, because he flashes things that can be caught up on media sites, and that’s what the news starts to talk about, and they’re not talking about things like, you know, his big ugly bill,” said Angel.
The racial justice advocate said communities must keep their “eye on the ball” even as Trump uses the military to “terrorize our neighborhoods by show of force” and “long-term budget policy consequences.”
While advocates point out that Black and Brown communities stand to suffer disproportionately from Trump’s executive actions, Angel told theGrio, “What Trump doesn’t understand about our communities is that we’ve been organizing for this moment.”
“We build coalitions, we’ve been training community defenders and preparing for this exact kind of assault on our democracy,” she said. “His violence will only strengthen our resolve.”
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Originally sourced via trusted media partner. https://thegrio.com/2025/06/12/critics-say-trumps-military-takeover-in-la-is-a-major-distraction-from-his-unpopular-bill/
