SAN FRANCISCO — Gavin Newsom has rallied Democrats in his war with Donald Trump, casting it as a fight for the future of American democracy. But maybe not for long.
As the left watches the clashes in Los Angeles drag on — with images of burning vehicles and protesters brawling with law enforcement proliferating — Democrats are also beginning to fear the imagery could hurt them by highlighting Trump’s hardline positions on immigration that helped propel him to the White House.
“It’s a winner for him. Remember, for (Trump), it’s not California, it’s not Massachusetts, it’s not New York — it’s that slim margin in the battleground states that he’s playing for,” said Kevin de León, the former Democratic leader of the California state Senate. “He’s not going to pull back.”
For Democrats, it’s a concern rooted in Trump’s historic strength on immigration with voters not in Los Angeles, but watching on social media and TV in swing states and districts across the country.
“There’s a background and a history, and so that limits the sympathy of lots of fair-minded Americans watching this spectacle unfold,” said Will Marshall, founder of Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank.
In response, Democrats are scrambling to shift the debate away from deportations or immigration policy. Instead, they’re trying to make it about Trump’s use of executive power — and what they argue is the president’s sweeping and unconstitutional overreach. Framing the conflict as an existential fight for the balance of power in America, Newsom in a speech Tuesday night delivered an ominous warning, claiming Trump is marching toward authoritarianism. He also mocked the president’s plans to hold a military parade with thousands of soldiers Saturday on the streets of Washington, D.C. — saying Trump is forcing the military “to put on a vulgar display for his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done.”
“Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,” Newsom said. “The moment we’ve feared has arrived.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat who previously served in Congress, has similarly accused Trump of provoking violence by calling in the military. But Bass, too, was explicit in her concerns about the image her city was projecting. She has repeatedly urged residents to peacefully protest to avoid giving the Trump “administration what they want” — arguing the president is sowing chaos to justify his power grab.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson accused Newsom of trying to distract from upheaval on the streets of Los Angeles. “Gavin Newsom is desperately trying to turn the conversation away from the wall-to-wall coverage of how he enabled lawless, violent riots against American law enforcement in support of criminal illegal aliens,” she said in an email.
Democrats have some reason for optimism. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday found Trump’s approval rating on immigration dropping 5 percentage points from April, to 43 percent. And YouGov polling this week found a plurality of Americans — 45 percent — disapproved of deploying the National Guard to the Los Angeles area, while 38 percent approved.
Democrats are pushing to keep the focus on the president’s use of executive powers, with Newsom and state officials suing to stop Trump’s unilateral deployment of Marines and commandeering of the state’s National Guard troops. A U.S. District court hearing in San Francisco is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
De León, the former state Senate leader, said the optics of Marines — wearing fatigues and trained for lethal combat — rolling into America’s second largest city has given Democrats an opening to force a broader debate over presidential powers.
“It shocks your senses — this act should send shivers down every American citizen’s spine, regardless of their political persuasion,” said De León, a former Los Angeles city councilmember who also authored California’s sanctuary law that limits police cooperation with immigration agents. “It’s so un-American. These are things that you think about in some Eastern European country during the Cold War, or in the Soviet Union.”
Newsom has also highlighted the lack of logistical preparation for the deployments, including reports that Guard troops arrived without sleeping arrangements or funding for fuel, water and food. He and Bass both assailed Trump over the Pentagon’s estimate that the deployments will cost $134 million, which they have called unnecessary and wasteful.
But as much as Democrats have forced Trump to play defense in the courts, the severity of civil unrest in Los Angeles, including burning cars and vandalism in pockets of downtown, have given many in the party heartburn.
“Gavin Newsom, take control of the situation,” former Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, told POLITICO. “The more the national brand is aligned with this level of instability, and defending people that are beating up cops, that national storyline, that national brand is not going to be good for candidates.”
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said, “If our troops didn’t go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now.”
Some Democrats insist they aren’t thinking about the political calculation. Rep. Lou Correa, who represents nearby Orange County, flew home from Congress Monday night to deal with the havoc that immigration actions have wreaked in Santa Ana, a heavily Latino suburb that has been hit withICE sweeps, including raids targeting day laborers at Home Depots.
“I don’t know what the message is of the Democratic Party, but I can tell you as a member of Congress, that my message is, essentially, these are hardworking individuals,” Correa said. “I mean, this is terror in our communities.”
Protests over escalating ICE sweeps are now spreading to other blue cities — including Austin, New York, Boston, Chicago and Portland.
In the Pacific Northwest, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said his city is hoping to avoid the spectacle of Los Angeles by preparing its police force to tamp down unruly protesters. He said the city learned that lesson after it became a Republican target over its handling of 2020 racial justice protests, when Trump sent in Department of Homeland Security agents.
“The federal government coming here [in 2020 was] because we weren’t properly handling the force,” Wilson said. “But we’ve changed so much.”
When similar protests transpired in Seattle that year, then-Gov. Jay Inslee activated the Washington National Guard. Now, the city is preparing for the possibility that troops could be sent without the invite of newly-elected Gov. Bob Ferguson, another Democrat. House Armed Services Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), whose district includes part of Seattle, cast a stark contrast between the 2020 protests in the Northwest and the current protests in Los Angeles or Seattle.
“Things were out of control in Seattle in 2020, there is no arguing that,” Smith said. “This is an entirely different thing. This is the president superseding local and state authority to bring the military in where they are not needed.”
California Democrats argue Trump’s deployment of the military wasn’t triggered by an ineffective law enforcement response in the Los Angeles area, but by a desire to expand his presidential powers — a threat that many Democrats, including presidential nominee Kamala Harris, warned about during the 2024 election.
“It’s as plain as day right now, and it’s scary,” said Brian Brokaw, a veteran Democratic consultant and Newsom adviser. “Now, what we are seeing is the practical manifestation.”
Brakkton Booker and Liz Crampton contributed to this report.
