How the left is trying to launch a civil war, city by city
Call it the Antifada.
I believe the insurrectionist left is trying to enact widespread chaos to undermine the Trump presidency, just as it did in 2020.
Why?
Because of the abundant evidence showing the coordinated effort behind the riots.
The same people sponsoring the riots in Los Angeles are sponsoring the protests in Columbus and other major cities around the country.
Just one problem for the left.
This isn’t 2020.
The country has wised up to their act and the subversive purpose of the violence by such leftist thugs as Antifa.
And so has President Trump.
This time, he did not hesitate to send in the National Guard.
Heck, he even sent the Marines.
In fact, this entire exercise in civil disturbance is poised to boomerang on the left bigly, because they chose to die on the most indefensible hill imaginable.
Democrats could not have picked a worse issue to defend.
97% of Americans support deporting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes.
That’s not a typo.
That’s a finding from a PEW Research poll in March.
What were ICE agents doing in Los Angeles that triggered the riots? Rounding up illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes.
Which side did Democrats take? They sided with the 3%. No wonder their party is dying.
So why did they do it?
Desperation.
It’s not like they have any winning issues.
And it’s what their megadonors want.
Let’s look at the details.
The anti-law and pro-riot left
On June 6, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began arresting violent illegal immigrants who had serious crime records including murder and sexual assault, according to the White House.
Violent protests quickly turned into riots, with videos on social media showing “numerous incidents of anti-ICE rioters throwing rocks at ICE vehicles and violently attacking federal agents."
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell refused to help ICE agents under attack, releasing a statement saying his officers would not support any federal deportation operation.
The optics of that decision were such a disaster, the chief quickly reversed himself instead of standing by while his city burned – again.
By that evening, more than “1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property," according to a DHS press release.
The release also mentioned, "It took the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) 2 hours to respond.” But at least they finally showed up and landed on the right side of the law.
President Trump wasn’t taking any chances. He learned his lesson in 2020 when local police forces around the nation proved powerless against rioters in every major city and scores of smaller cities.
Trump called in the National Guard and dispatched 4,000 troops to Los Angeles.
Democrats howled in pain and anger.
Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom furiously opposed the decision, claiming the peacekeepers would destroy the peace: “That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
Trump responded by sending 700 Marines.
The military has kept the situation from getting out of control but the riots have not stopped yet.
Neither have Democrats’ denials.
"Rioters are throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement, defacing public property, setting cars on fire, looting family businesses, assaulting law enforcement, and burning American flags," the Department of Homeland Security wrote on X on Wednesday.
But Los Angeles area Congresswoman Maxine Watters claims she has seen “no violence” by the rioters.
Bombastic Senator Cory Booker called the riots “peaceful.”
Former bartender Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed Trump for the riots she said were not happening, claiming “Everything was fine until Trump decided to unleash violent raids.”
Democrats lied about what everyone could plainly see on video – just like they lied about Biden’s mental health.
Why?
They have no other choice. The truth is too damning.
Democrats are so incompetent they cannot stop Los Angeles from going up in flames twice in six months – first because their fire hydrants didn’t work and now because they are unable to dislodge the violent gang members they have imported from all over Latin America who run vast swathes of the city and state.
All Democrats can do is follow the lame lead of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sputters Trump is committing a “brazen abuse of power” by sending the military to save Los Angeles from complete destruction.
It’s not a good look.
"Murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers. These are the types of criminal illegal aliens that rioters are fighting to protect. How much longer will Governor Newsom and (Los Angeles) Mayor Karen Bass continue to prioritize these criminal illegal aliens over their own citizens?" said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Wednesday.
Insurrection
"The people causing the problem are professional agitators. They're insurrectionists. They're bad people. They should be in jail," President Trump said on Monday.
“This is an organized insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States,” tweeted top Trump policy advisor Stephen Miller.
“When people are directly assaulting property and law enforcement, that's the very definition of insurrection,” said Darrell Issa, a congressman from Southern California.
Aside from the obvious January 6 irony, why do Republicans keep using the “I” word?
Because of the rapidly growing evidence of leftist planning, sponsorship, and support of these riots.
And now the unrest is spreading to cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, and Portland.
Almost like the left is trying to start a civil war, city by city.
Actually, exactly like that.
That evidence includes the FBI’s arrest on Thursday of a man accused of distributing face shields to L.A. rioters.
"We have made it a huge priority to try to identify, locate and arrest those who are involved in organizing, supporting, funding or facilitating these riots," said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
"It appears they're well-orchestrated, and coordinated and well-funded, so we want to understand who these people are and where this organization's coming from and today was one of those first arrests, the key arrests that we did."
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Terrorism, announced he is launching an investigation to find out “who is funding the LA riots.”
He said the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) may have had a "role in financially and materially supporting" riots in Los Angeles.
Hawley said "credible reporting" indicated the left-wing group provided "logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions."
And he warned, "Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech. It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct."
California Attorney Laura Powell says “CHIRLA has strong ties to the Democrat Party in California and has supported the election of Democratic candidates through its lobbying arm. It has a particularly close relationship with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.”
Follow the Money
The source of CHIRLA’s funding?
It’s outrageous.
It is you. And it is me. It is American taxpayers.
Powell obtained IRS records that show “CHIRLA has received $34 million in government grants, including three from former President Joe Biden's administration for $750,000.”
She tweeted, “CHIRLA also received a $450,000 federal contract in 2023, which Mayor Bass publicly took credit for helping secure. DHS froze funding in February, which prompted a lawsuit from CHIRLA.”
And Powell brought the receipts, literally:
President Trump cut funding for CHIRLA but not before it established a hotline to report ICE raids, called the Rapid Response Network. It sends text alerts telling illegal immigrants when to hide.
The FBI is also investigating who is funding the riots.
“The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots,” said the agency’s director Kash Patel.
“One group backing the unrest is the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a communist political party linked to networks funded by pro-Beijing tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham,” reports the Epoch Times.
The Buckeye Connection
This group happens to have a chapter in Ohio.
In fact, the “Party for Socialism and Liberation Columbus” was listed as one of the sponsors of the anti-ICE protest on June 10 at Columbus City Hall. The “La Raza Movement” was another sponsor, as was the George Soros funded group, 50501. So was the Columbus chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, marking at least four organizations backing protests in both Los Angeles and Columbus.
“Once is coincidence. Twice is happenstance. Three times is enemy action,” according to James Bond in Goldfinger.
It is no coincidence that the groups sponsoring and organizing the protests in Columbus are also behind the Los Angeles riots.
And if they're in Columbus, you can bet they are in every major city in America.
They are trying to spread the unrest nationwide.
They know their best chance to unseat the Trump administration is to set cities on fire across the country.
It worked in 2020.
Just one problem.
This is not 2020.
This time Trump sent in the troops.
This time it will not spin out of control.
This time no one is publicly backing the rioters online except Democratic politicians and the most radical leftists in the land.
There is such little public support for this cause, the left tried to rent-a-riot to bolster their numbers.
Crowds on Demand provides rented crowds for protests. The California-based company said it received "numerous high budget requests" to provide bodies for the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles and other cities.
But the company declined because it did "not want to get close to any form of illegal activity, including violence, vandalism or blocking off roads without a permit."
Mostly Peaceful Political Theater
Here’s another plausible take on the purpose of the riots.
They are not meant to actually defeat ICE, but are purely political theater.
The left is trying to intimidate America into accepting its radical agenda, like it did in 2020.
It succeeded when many Americans expressed sympathy with the agenda of the Black Lives Matter movement and what was portrayed as oppression against African-Americans.
The difference this time?
Very few are buying the line that criminal illegal immigrants are unjustly oppressed.
Social media is not full of icons expressing support, there are no pro-criminal illegal alien yard signs, and Bob and Betty Buckeye are not marching in solidarity with foreign criminals.
Americans are simply not persuaded this is a just cause.
The left can riot in favor of overturning our immigration laws, but all signs indicate America has finally had enough.
Here’s a tweet you would not have seen in 2020.
There is no public sympathy against the rounding up of criminal illegal immigrants.
Just the opposite.
This is what America voted for.
And this is what polls show Americans overwhelmingly support.
Setting their own cities on fire will not work for the left a second time.
End Game
Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter sees this as much more of an opportunity than a crisis for Trump:
“Federal law enforcement can target the conspirators with criminal indictments and finally break this cycle. It can dismantle the infrastructure that allows these faux-spontaneous insurrections to pop up across the country.”
“And the situation also provides an opportunity to defund the government support to NGOs that launder government money to fund this kind of violence. The LA rioting has exposed our enemy to scrutiny, and we should take full advantage of that to crush it.”
Veteran journalist and columnist Don Surber warns that we should not underestimate the Mexican drug cartels’ likely involvement in financing the riots, while running an underground economy in California.
He quotes Border Czar Tom Homan: “The Fashion District wasn’t an immigration raid. It was the service of three criminal warrants at locations based on a large criminal conspiracy that ICE is investigating, that has to do with money laundering, tax evasion and customs fraud—where a company under-declared over $80 million in goods, failed to pay $17 million in fees."
“And it’s part of an overall conspiracy on numerous businesses that they believe that some of this money is being laundered in Mexico and Colombia. So, this was a criminal investigation that they are responding to.”
Surber adds, “Follow the money and you will find who finances this protest.”
Surber also has an explanation for “the Democrats’ insistence on being on the 20 side of an 80/20 issue”.
He says it “tells me there’s a lot of power and money at stake. Indeed, 11 million to 20 million more illegal aliens included in the next Census means Democrats will gain 15 to 25 seats in Congress in 2032.”
“On top of that, the ladling of federal largesse to states is based on population. California would go broke if only citizens and legal aliens were included.”
“That explains why Democrats are going to the mats on this one.”
There is another player, however, lurking in the weeds and hoping to capitalize on an opportunity to bring America to her knees.
We will more deeply examine the role played by communist China in the riots, next week.
Dr. Terry Johnson represents Ohio Senate District 14