On Sunday, President Donald Trump brazenly defied the Governor of California Gavin Newsom by deploying the national guard against demonstrators in Los Angeles, as they protested against the administration’s immigration raids. Trump’s move marked the first time a president deployed a state’s National Guard without a governor’s request since 1965 – when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights protesters.
To help break down the situation in LA, Pulitzer Prize winner, Zeteo contributor, and LA resident Viet Thanh Nguyen joined Mehdi for a town hall Q&A with paid subscribers, where he answered questions from the audience.
During the conversation, Nguyen – who is a refugee himself – explained how Trump has used his anti-migrant rhetoric to justify his drastic move.
“The Trump administration has already set up a narrative that we are in a war of culture and civilization… Depicting this as an invasion of this city by undocumented migrants then allows the Trump Administration to invade the city on its own terms,” Nguyen says to Mehdi.
Nguyen told Mehdi that Trump’s additional deployment of 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles on Monday is a part of Trump’s attempt to create a, “spectacle” in the city.
“Trump wants to make Los Angeles Fallujah on the Pacific. That's the spectacle, that's the reality show he wants to create. And most people in Los Angeles are not buying this narrative. The danger, however, obviously, is that some portion of the American population will buy into this narrative,” Nguyen tells Mehdi.
Mehdi and Nguyen also discussed the LA protests themselves, with Viet telling Mehdi that any violence from the protests are, “coming first from this militarized police presence in LA.”
Paid subscribers can watch the full interview to hear Mehdi and Viet discuss Trump’s escalating deportation campaign, Israel’s war on Gaza, and the current state of the Democratic Party.
Free subscribers can watch the first 6-minutes of the interview. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo and skip the paywall every time!
