Events in Los Angeles, where National Guard troops clashed with protesters against President Donald Trump’s immigration raids, may seem like a purely American crisis.
But there are signs the situation could become an international headache.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum swiftly rebuked a claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that she was “encouraging violent protests” in LA, posting a clip in which she condemned violence and urged Mexicans in the US to act peacefully.
Halfway around the world in Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denounced the shooting with a rubber bullet of an Australian journalist reporting on the crackdown, calling it “horrific.”
Trump is days from meeting world leaders at the Group of Seven and NATO summits as his war on immigration reverberates in uncomfortable ways.
European allies even face the possibility that student-visa overstayers could be swept into mass deportation operations and sent to the notorious detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, the Washington Post reported.
That would represent a major diplomatic breach at a time when governments worldwide are wrestling with Trump’s trade tariffs, the dismantling of US international aid programs, and, in some cases, territorial threats — or suggestions of US troop drawdowns.
The timing is no accident. Days after an explosive feud between Trump and Elon Musk that left Republicans fractured and potentially complicated the passage of Trump’s signature legislative package, the president’s escalation in California feels more like a narrative reset than a security response.
Meanwhile, the World Bank warned yesterday that the 2020s are on track for the weakest economic performance for any decade since the 1960s because of “international discord” over trade.
Trump’s tried and tested response is on show in LA: shift the conversation to areas that rile up his base, namely immigration, border security, and law and order. — Kate Sullivan