The US president says he has called Gavin Newsom just to censor him by the way he has dealt with protests in Los Angeles. The governor of California says he received no call, “not a voice mail.” Meanwhile, Donald Trump threatens to hardly respond to any demonstration during Saturday’s Military Parade in Washington. Truth, lie or delirium-rhetoric conjugates again with promises of strength
From the Oval Room, President Donald Trump launched another verbal attack on California governor Gavin Newsom. Speaking to journalists, Trump assured him that he had called the Democrat Governor to criticize him for the way he dealt with the protests in Los Angeles. “You have to do a better job. It’s been doing a bad job, causing a lot of deaths, or potential to do so,” said the president in a serious tone.
The accusation, however, bumps into the facts. The Californian authorities did not record any deadly victim in the demonstrations that broke out in response to the intensification of deportations ordered by the White House.
And, according to Gavin Newsom, the alleged telephone so -called didn’t even exist. On social networks, the governor reacted vehemently: “There was no phone call, not even a voicemail. The Americans should be alarmed by the fact that a president who is mobilizing the Marines to our streets not even knowing who spoke to.”
Newsom spokesman Izzy Gardon was even more literal. He assured the “New York Times” that he personally traveled the registration of the governor’s mobile phone: “No lost calls. No voice messages. Nothing.” According to Gardon, the last time the two, president and governor, spoke was the previous Friday.
Protests in Los Angeles have been largely peaceful, with thousands of people occupying the streets to denounce the Trump administration deportation policies. The epicenter of the manifestations was the area of Boyle Heights, a historically Latin neighborhood and symbol of resistance to anti-immigration measurements. Although punctual arrests and some confrontations with the police have occurred, the authorities did not record deadly victims or episodes of widespread violence.
The others, always the others: “It’s people who hate our country”
However, from the center of power to the streets of the capital, Trump again harden the speech. He warned, later this Tuesday, and still in the Oval Room that any attempted protest at the military parade scheduled for Saturday in Washington will be faced with “very heavy force.” “People who want to protest will be received very strongly. I haven’t even heard of a protest, but we are talking about people who hate our country,” Trump said, evoking a climate of threat without proof.
The parade, which marks the 250th anniversary of the United States Army, is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people, according to Matt McCool, special agent of the secret service in charge of the operation. The official revealed to Reuters that thousands of agents, officers and police forces across the country will be highlighted to ensure the safety of the event.
Despite the apparatus, neither the FBI nor the Washington Metropolitan Police identified credible threats. But in the year of elections and with the political thermometer permanently on the rise, the White House seems willing to act as if the danger was imminent – is part of the trumpland narrative.
In the United States, military parades are rare events and loaded with political symbolism. Unlike countries such as Russia-or even France, speaking of democracy-where streets exhibition is an annual tradition, American practice tends to privilege institutional modesty. Since Eisenhower’s time, the US has avoid heavy weaponry parades on domestic soil – a ruled rule punctually by Trump in 2019, when it promoted the “salute to America” (“Greeting to America”), inspired by the Bastile Day parades that witnessed in Paris.
The celebration of the 250th anniversary of the army is therefore more than a military ephemeris: it is also a staging of power in the public space.
