'Enemy within' Trampling of dissent by the military was only a matter of time

Donald Trump walked out to a thunderous ovation as Kid Rock's "American Bad Ass" boomed from the sound system.

- David Smith

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.

Shortly before joining an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday, Trump signed an order deploying 2,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, where protests at immigration raids led to clashes between authorities and demonstrators. The White House said Trump was sending in the guards to "address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester" in California. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said the move was "purposefully inflammatory". Experts said it was the first time in 60 years a president had activated a state's national guard - a reserve military - without a request from its governor.

Critics also saw it as an authoritarian flex by a strongman president who has relentlessly sought to crush dissent at cultural institutions, law firms, media companies and universities since returning to office. Many believed it was only a matter of time before he took the fight to the streets.