LA Protests

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

It's not the first time protests got nasty, nor the first time that the federal government has sent in troops without the consent of the state government (though that's rather rare). It is, however, the first time a President has publicly mused about jailing a sitting Governor. Newsom is presumably not going to get arrested, but the whole affair is very unseemly.

[Octavious]

I get the impression that they're both loving it. Newsom is dreaming about 2028 and a bit of head to head with Trump in the media will do him the world of good, and Trump is relishing being seen as a man of action making good on his election promises. And if an Australian media type gets shot by a rubber bullet in the backside, so much the better.

I am surprised no previous president has mused about the arrest of a Governor before, considering previous presidents have gone to war with them and that's a long way beyond the arrest stage. There's surely been a governor that has done something worthy of arrest, no?

[Jamiet99uk]

Sending in marines against the wishes of the government is pretty extreme.

[Jamiet99uk]

Irony:

In February 2024, Kristi Noem tweeted:

"If Joe Biden federalizes the National Guard, that would be a direct attack on states' rights. We can't let Democrats take away our right to defend ourselves too."

Fast forward to today, Kristi Noem is US Secretary of Homeland Security, and the National Guard is in Los Angeles, under federal command, against the wishes of the state authorities!

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

I get the impression that they're both loving it. Newsom is dreaming about 2028 and a bit of head to head with Trump in the media will do him the world of good, and Trump is relishing being seen as a man of action making good on his election promises. And if an Australian media type gets shot by a rubber bullet in the backside, so much the better.

I am surprised no previous president has mused about the arrest of a Governor before, considering previous presidents have gone to war with them and that's a long way beyond the arrest stage. There's surely been a governor that has done something worthy of arrest, no?

So it's either a constitutional crisis or a professional wrestling beef lol, my God the US is in such an odd and terrible spot.

It's been a rather long time since there was a war with a state, it's probably worth putting some limit on your historical horizons here.

The last time the fed got this muscular against states was to enforce de-segregation. Even then no sitting Governor was threatened with jail as far as I can tell.

[Octavious]

It's not really a threat as Trump doesn't have any power to arrest anyone. Various other people can, but only if they have good reason. I doubt Newsom feels particularly threatened, and I suspect he's delighted by the media spotlight.

It's also entirely possible to be a constitutional crisis and a professional wrestling beef. And in terms of putting limits on historical horizons, I tend to leave that to other people. In this case you said the first, rather than the first in the modern era or the first since the war, so I took my cue from that.