White House insiders believe President Donald Trump has found a winning issue with his crackdown on protesters, according to to MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire.
The president deployed the California National Guard and active-duty U.S. Marines to assist law enforcement last week to cover pro-immigration protests in Los Angeles, and the "Morning Joe" co-host said Trump's allies told him that's a political winner — despite what the polling says.
"There is some wariness, they loved, the White House political advisers who I've talked to over the last 10 days about all this, they love the initial scenes out of LA, and they felt like even dispatching some of the National Guard," Lemire said. "That was a power move, they liked that imagery for the president. They also, at the same time, though, recognized that things got out of hand if there was real violent clashes between protesters, again, most of them peaceful."
"But if there were violent clashes between protesters and members of the military, that would be bad for everyone," Lemire added. "That would blow up. Those scenes of chaos and violence would be bad for the administration, as well, so there is a wariness here."
Trump made clear in a Truth Social post Sunday that he intends to escalate his mass deportation plan and is specifically targeting Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, but Lemire said some advisers in the White House are worried about potential blowback.
"President Trump himself wants to forge forward," Lemire said. "He keeps wanting to push the line. He keeps wanting to test, and that's what that post was last night. I'm told that he does want to expand these efforts into other cities, the ICE raids and if accompanying protests come, they think that will be a political winner."
"But, man, that is a thin line to walk, and there are some in Trump's orbit who are aware of that and are concerned," he added. "We'll see how it plays out in the weeks ahead. But this is absolutely a space to watch as the summer heats up."
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