For the first several years of Trump's regime, he regularly cited drugs and criminals crossing our southern border with Mexico as the greatest threat to the nation. He even brought the Pentagon into his politically-motivated campaign to build a glorified border fence and deploy active duty service members who were tasked with clearing brush and stocking shelves.
But now, in 2020, Trump's campaign is falling apart and he believes that screeching about "law and order" will scare "suburban housewives" into voting for him.
To that end, the most highly trained immigrant and customs agents have been deployed to Portland, Oregon where they're beating and gassing the same suburban housewives that Trump think he's going to win.
From the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON (AP) — They are the most highly trained members of the Border Patrol, agents who confront drug traffickers along the U.S.-Mexico border and track down dangerous fugitives in rugged terrain.
One day this past week, they were in a far different setting — a city park in Portland, Oregon, looking for two people suspected of throwing rocks and bottles at officers guarding the downtown federal courthouse. [...]
It’s not just the Border Patrol Tactical Unit that has been called to duty in Portland. DHS has dispatched air marshals as well as the Customs and Border Protection Special Response Team and even members of the Coast Guard.
To be absolutely clear, Trump's regime advisers who spoke to CNN say Trump has been encouraged by his political allies and aides to create a spectacle that will scare white people into voting for him again.
Some Trump allies had been pushing the White House to take more concrete action to fortify Trump's "law and order" message, which they believe will play well with the suburban voters who have been fleeing Trump's camp since 2016.
A campaign adviser said aides and allies to Trump see a political upside in sending in federal forces into Democratic-led cities to quell unruly protests and combat violent crime. On the volatile situation in Oregon, for example, the Trump adviser predicted voters will increasingly point fingers at the governor and mayor of Portland.
One official who spoke to the Washington Post says the explicit goal is to create "viral content" on social media so Trump's campaign can use it in their racist scare campaign.
One of the officials said the White House had long wanted to amplify strife in cities, encouraging DHS officials to talk about arrests of violent criminals in sanctuary cities and repeatedly urging ICE to disclose more details of raids than some in the agency were comfortable doing. “It was about getting viral online content,” one of the officials said.
If the goal is to create viral content, I would say the goal has been met because I've seen plenty of footage from Portland, but the footage isn't good for Trump.
Portland is not an especially diverse city. Most of the protesters violently attacked by Trump's political foot soldiers are white and, in recent days, they included mostly-white military veterans and a "wall of moms" who are mostly white.
I point out that they're mostly white because white people is who Trump is trying to appeal to and scare by screaming "law and order." And Trump even called the wall of mostly-white moms a "scam" or conspiracy. So much for the housewives.
At least 30 to 40 percent of the country is going to vote for Trump no matter what happens between now and November, but I believe a majority of the country can see Trump's authoritarian stunts for what they are.
Personally, and speaking as a transgender white woman who actually lives in a suburb (tho I am not a housewife), I am far more afraid of police officers and Trump's jackboots than I am of fictitious criminals. I'm not afraid of immigrants or people who simply look different than me which, let's be honest, is virtually everyone at this point. I am, however, keenly aware that local or federal officers could do virtually anything they want to me if I were arrested at a protest and they would never face consequences for it.