It is a fraught moment to stage a military parade in America’s capital. The display of tanks, aircraft and march-bys on Saturday will coincide with the US Army’s 250th anniversary and Donald Trump’s 79th.
It will also come a week after Trump put the National Guard on the streets of Los Angeles – the first time in 60 years a president has done so in defiance of the state governor.
The two situations are poles apart. In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson deployed troops to protect civil rights marchers from Alabama’s trigger-happy local police. In 2025, Trump’s declared aim is to protect federal agents and buildings from local protesters.
Unlike LBJ’s, Trump’s mission is open-ended. Johnson was sealing his desegregation of the south. Trump, on the other hand, is only beginning his pursuit of America’s “enemy from within”.
Róis: ‘Moving away from Ireland shook me. Going away is essential’
Joe Canning on taking frees: ‘If I miss this, I’m f**ked. I’ll never live this down’
The Dirty Souls Letterkenny takeaway review: Low-and-slow tastes of the deep south in the northwest
Potential new names for the Department of Arts: Smacc, Cacs, Scam and – my favourite – DoSac
That the protests are local is irrelevant. Neither California nor LA are mentioned in Trump’s executive order that cites an obscure law to justify intervening anywhere. Think of LA as Trump’s first beachhead in a national campaign.
“We’re going to have troops everywhere,” he said.
His order would also allow the federal army to be deployed on US streets. Trump’s campaign of mass deportation is getting under way.
Trump has two advantages in his clearest step so far towards authoritarianism. The first is that he can claim a mandate. Throughout the campaign, he vowed to deport millions of migrants – with the help of the US military if necessary.
In theory, public opinion is marginally on his side. Second, Trump knows there are enough masked Mexican flag-wavers among the protesters to supply him with the pretext to escalate. That is the point. Every rock hurled lands like a penny in Trump’s wishing well.
America’s left should recall that Martin Luther King’s protests were scrupulously peaceful. The goal of racist local sheriffs was to provoke violence. Though most LA protesters are peaceful, the infamous ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – is having an easier job of it.
To underline, Trump’s claim is that the left is antinational, extremist and violent.
The protesters, in turn, are defending due process, including for the millions of immigrants in Trump’s sights. The US republic’s future could hinge on which side is identified with the rule of law.
[ Explainer: is it legal for Trump to use US troops to suppress protests?Opens in new window ]
Who would bet against Trump in the battle for public opinion? Less than 200 days into his second term, he has trampled over more laws and ripped up more precedents than any leader in US history.
He has enriched himself and his family with overseas crypto sales and golf resort deals, launched a war on leading universities and medical institutions, ignored serial court orders to give deportees legal rights, declared, paused and partially resumed economic war on the world, and targeted his enemies with investigations and stripped them of security protection.
Trump’s assault on democratic norms has been breathtaking in scale and speed. Yet his approval rating is still at 45 per cent.
The Democrats have been helping Trump along. The party is split on how strongly it should fight Trump’s deportations. The principled stance would be to do whatever it takes to uphold the rule of law. Deportations should happen if due process is followed.
By contrast, putting troops on America’s streets poses a mortal threat to federal democracy. That America’s left speaks with many tongues is helpful to Trump, whose party listens only to his.
Did you witness Republican outrage over Trump’s threat of targeting Elon Musk’s business empire? Neither did I. Ditto for his assault on America’s leading law firms, foreign students, media conglomerates and scientific research.
Here is where the LA situation is likely to lead. ICE is Trump’s crack agency. Its agents are raiding restaurants, law courts, retail centres and day labour assembly points across the country.
Trump’s “big, beautiful [budget] bill” will earmark $185 billion (€167 billion) for immigration enforcement, including ICE, which is more than the annual military spending of the UK and France combined. Wherever ICE raids trigger protests, Trump can send in the troops.
Expect Chicago, San Francisco, Denver and other cities to feature soon.
Do not expect Trump to back down. Stephen Miller, his militant henchman and deputy chief of staff, wants 3,000 immigrants a day deported and brands opposition to ICE raids as “insurrection”.
Expelling that many people will require a lot of armed manpower. The economic bill will show up in the form of higher food prices and home-construction costs. The toll on the US rule of law and social stability will be incalculably higher. – The Financial Times Limited 2025
