Donald Trump vs. California (and everywhere else)

[Zorro]

What happened in California this weekend was another facet of the president’s effort to quash critics.

What’s important to remember about the fracture that emerged in Los Angeles over the weekend is that it came shortly after reports that President Donald Trump was seeking to block California from receiving certain federal funding. His team, The Post reported, was “asking federal employees to develop rationales for the funding cuts” — perhaps looking at conflicts with his executive orders about cutting costs or ending diversity initiatives.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded by noting that the state contributes far more in federal taxes than it receives in services. But the point wasn’t really the money. The point was that the Trump administration wanted to bring California to heel, precisely as it had sought to bring elite universities to heel, similarly by contriving reasons the government might strip funding. The methodology was the same because the intent was the same: inflict pain on an entity that Trump viewed as hostile to his presidency.

Immigration officials and officers have been a critical component of those efforts to inflict pain. For example, Harvard University, a target of administration efforts to block funding, had its ability to enroll students from overseas thrown into legal limbo. Meanwhile, California (and Los Angeles in particular) is home to more than 1 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without legal documentation, providing lots of potential enforcement opportunities for immigration police less concerned about deporting potentially dangerous immigrants than simply deporting any immigrant who might be subject to deportation.

Last month the conservative Washington Examiner reported that Trump adviser Stephen Miller had excoriated senior immigration officials for the slow pace of deportations. “Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested,” an official told the newspaper. Miller, the official said, asked, “Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?”

So Immigration and Customs Enforcement went to a Home Depot in Los Angeles. There, they met resistance from protesters seeking to shield targeted immigrants — often their neighbors — from ICE’s efforts. The result was conflagration, which there are plenty of reasons to assume is exactly what the administration sought.

https://wapo.st/45eNkh9

[Dave Bowman]

1. Miller, the Muppet Nazi. A living caricature and a mean little twerp.