From L.A. to D.C.: This Is How Martial Law Begins. Don't Take the Bait.

ICE raids. Marines deployed. A military parade built for provocation.

(📸 credit: Jesse Rodriguez, who’s doing an incredible job capturing the emotion and intensity of this moment.)

I've seen the signs abroad, in intelligence briefings, crisis war rooms, and inside Trump's White House. The raids in Los Angeles weren’t about immigration. They were a televised warning, a declaration not just of Trump’s return to power, but of his intent to rule by force.

Days after the raids sparked protests, Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops, claiming they were needed “to ensure law and order.” White House hardliners like Stephen Miller are branding demonstrators “insurrectionists,” deliberately reframing peaceful action as criminal uprising. Then Trump escalated again: dispatching more Guard units and U.S. Marines. Secretary Pete Hegseth stated during Congressional questioning today that the Guard troops will be there for sixty days, costing taxpayers $134 million.

When your government is acting lawlessly, it’s the height of hypocrisy to accuse the American people of disorder. Trump keeps invoking “order” while operating outside the very boundaries of our Constitution. And now, we brace for the next act: a military parade in Washington, D.C.—funded, staged, and weaponized by a White House that dreams of autocracy.

Let’s call this what it is. These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re steps in a sequence. The mass ICE raids, the armored vehicles, the media spectacle, they were the rehearsal. The parade is the performance. Martial law is no longer theoretical. It's coming.

Trump’s obsession with parades dates back to his first term. I was there. He envied strongmen who stood before tanks and troops, not as symbols of service, but of personal power. Ask anyone in South Korea what it feels like to watch a North Korean military parade: the missiles, the precision marching, the unspoken threat: We can unleash this on you. That’s not theater. That’s control. That’s not speculation; that’s exactly how North Korea uses these parades to control its population and project dominance abroad. That’s the template Trump is following. The parade in Washington, D.C. isn’t about honoring the military. It’s about flexing it. While the Army’s 250th birthday celebration was long scheduled, Trump announced plans to hijack the event, conveniently timed to his own 79th birthday, and turn it into a full-blown military showcase. Sixty-ton M1 Abrams tanks and Paladin howitzers are now set to roll through D.C.

"No Kings" counter-protests are planned nationwide, with a mass march to the White House expected on Saturday. Officials worry that clashes in L.A. could spread to D.C. or other cities. That’s the climate being engineered: confrontation by design. 

This parade isn’t symbolic. It’s strategic. It’s meant to normalize the military’s presence in civilian life, to blend uniforms with political power. This isn’t optics. It’s indoctrination.

Again, this was never just about immigration. It’s about conditioning the public to comply. Making people too afraid to question authority. The raids didn’t just detain undocumented individuals. They terrorized entire communities. And Trump’s crackdown on protest was meant to instill fear—of speaking, of gathering, of being seen.

Here’s the truth: Americans aren’t protesting because they support crime. They’re protesting because this administration is operating like a secret police force, storming neighborhoods, detaining fathers and mothers under vague, unproven accusations of gang ties or violent crimes. We have every right to be outraged. Say this louder for the right wing propaganda machine that continues to distort what’s happening saying that people like you and me (Pence’s former Homeland Security Advisor) support crime.

When this happens abroad, we call it state intimidation. When it happens here, MAGA calls it "law and order."

Trump has stated that he backs his “Border Czar,” Tom Homan, in saying that California Governor Gavin Newsom should be arrested. Not for corruption. Not for a crime. But for opposing Trump’s unusual seizure of his state’s National Guard. 

Arresting political opponents is not law enforcement. It’s authoritarianism.

It’s a line we were never meant to cross. Legal scholars are sounding alarms over Trump’s expanded use of Title 10 powers, federalizing troops without state consent to suppress protest. It’s a direct threat to the balance of power between states and the presidency, and it blurs the lines between civil governance and military rule. 

This isn’t paranoia. It’s a blueprint. Once the public gets comfortable with militarization, it’s easier to justify curfews, surveillance, emergency powers, and martial law.

U.S. Marines are no longer just on standby, they’re being deployed. These are troops trained for combat, not crowd control, now backing federal operations on American soil. This isn’t public safety. It’s a message: stay in line, or else. I’ve deployed with the military. I’ve stood alongside troops overseas whose mission was to defend this country, not be turned against it. There is no foreign enemy on our shores. We are not in a war zone. What’s unfolding is a domestic power grab.

Authoritarian regimes use troops to silence their people. Democracies train them to protect people. That distinction is vanishing. And if we let it vanish now, we may never reclaim it.

I understand the urge to resist. To shout. To show up. I feel it too. But Trump’s team wants mayhem. That’s why he’s sending in the Guard and the Marines, not just to intimidate, but to provoke. Don’t hand them the excuse. Don’t give them the footage. One act of violence, and the headlines shift, and Trump gets what he wants: a reason to escalate. A pathway to martial law.

What’s happening in L.A. isn’t chaos. It’s choreography. And Trump’s aides are cheering. According to Politico, they’re describing the unrest as “exactly what Trump wanted.” It’s the same script they used during the George Floyd protests: bait the public, provoke a clash, then declare it an insurrection. They’re not ashamed of the fallout. They crave it. This is the same President who wanted to shoot the protestors. I know, I witnessed this firsthand. That’s the cruelty. That’s the trap.

The only reason the Insurrection Act wasn’t invoked back then is because Cabinet officials like Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman Milley stood adamantly against it. Remember what happened at Lafayette Square in June 2020? That was it for me. I knew it was the precursor of what was to come if he lost the 2020 election, and it did, culminating with the violence we all witnessed on January 6, 2021. Current events are the precursor of what’s to come in future elections that don’t go their way.

The more the public erupts in visible rage, the more Trump feeds his narrative of “law and order,” framing himself as the last line of defense against the unrest he provoked. Yes, it’s sadistic. The Trump Administration would rather see cities burn than lose a grip on power.

We are walking a tightrope: between chaos and complicity. But silence isn’t neutrality. It’s surrender. 

Protest is powerful when it robs the strongman of his narrative. So protest with purpose. Don’t become the story Trump wants.

If you go to D.C. on June 14, or attend a counter-protest elsewhere, be peaceful. Be disciplined. Bad actors are looking to exploit this moment. Trump’s people are hoping they succeed.

Bring your flag. Bring the banner of your cause, your heritage, your identity. But bring the American flag, too. Own it. This is your country, too. It always has been. Don’t let MAGA extremists twist your presence into propaganda. Be proud. Be peaceful. Be unmistakably American!

We cannot afford to freeze in fear. We must move in defiance.

See you on Saturday!

Olivia