Trump's LA Intervention Sets Stage for a Bigger Political Showdown

Clashes are proxy battles ahead of 2026's midterms and next presidential election

- Jonathan Eyal

LONDON - The clashes between rioters and federal and California National Guard troops now unfolding in Los Angeles have played out in typical American fashion, with exaggerated claims and disputes about the interpretation of supposedly grand constitutional principles.

US President Donald Trump claims that had he not deployed a total of around 5,000 troops, Los Angeles "would be burning".

But Ms Karen Bass, Los Angeles' mayor, argues that law and order were never truly threatened in her city and that the solution to the violence is simple: The "administration needs to stop the raids".

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom is suing the Trump administration, alleging that the President's actions violate the US Constitution, and particularly the 10th Amendment that says any power not expressly granted to the US federal government in the Constitution goes to the states.

But, in reality, both the confrontation and the surrounding spectacle are proxy battles in preparation not only for 2026's midterm congressional elections but also for the much more significant political landmark of 2027, when the two parties will pick their presidential candidates for 2028.

The illegal immigrants and soldiers are merely actors in this political tussle.

WHAT BOTH SIDES GOT WRONG ON IMMIGRATION Mr Trump's obsession with immigration has dominated his 2024 presidential campaign and US politics for the past decade.

As they went to the ballots in November 2024, almost two-thirds of US voters saw immigration as a priority for them in the election.

Democratic party bosses now readily acknowledge that their inability to provide convincing answers to the immigration dilemma and the perception that the borders between the US and Mexico were wide open to illegal migrants cost them dearly.

Worries about illegal immigration were not confined to white Americans, as some Democratic politicians like to claim.