Trump uses LA protests to redirect dissent from policy failures to the ‘enemy within’

<p>Critics see deployment of national guard as an authoritarian flex by a strongman who has relentlessly trampled norms</p><p>Donald Trump walked out to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mma-ufc-trump-tyson-c0d9279b626e69cc0ca62474c7dafa2f">a thunderous standing ovation</a> as Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” boomed from the sound system. He watched martial artists slug it out behind a chain-link fence. A female champion let the US president try on her gold belt. It was a night of machismo, spectacle and violence.</p><p>Shortly before he joined an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night, Trump had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/08/los-angeles-protests-immigration-ice">signed an order</a> deploying 2,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, where protests sparked by sweeping immigration raids led to clashes between authorities and demonstrators.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/08/trump-la-protests-enemy-within">Continue reading...</a>