Trump is waging war against his own citizens in Los Angeles | Judith Levine

In its first months in office, the Trump administration enacted what could be called soft authoritarianism. Now we are in a second phase

On Monday, the Pentagon sent 700 active-duty marines to Los Angeles and doubled the number of national guard troops deployed there to 4,000, to quell protests Donald Trump said on Sunday were already under control", still simmering ... but not very much".

The same day, the US president used the word insurrectionists" to describe demonstrators against the unprecedentedly large and fierce immigration deportation raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) that started on Friday in that city. The remark echoed his long-held desire to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would authorize him to send the military anywhere in the country to put down dissent.