Bread, Circuses, and the 'Enemy Within'
After deploying the military to enforce "law and order" amid anti-ICE protests in LA, Trump appeared at a UFC event in New Jersey in a spectacle befitting the strongman he imagines himself to be.
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Not long ago, Donald Trump began using the phrase “the enemy within” to describe his political opponents—not just Democratic politicians who investigated him, but dissenting Americans, undocumented migrants, and so-called “radical left lunatics.” In Trump’s eyes, they posed a greater threat than any foreign adversary, so much so that he was willing to deploy the military to quash any rebellion.
““I always say, we have two enemies. We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries,” Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in October 2024, adding that “we have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics. I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
On Saturday, Trump’s threat came to fruition when he signed a memo ordering the deployment of at least 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles County to enforce “law and order” after ICE immigration raids sparked mass protests.
The ICE operations in LA resulted in the arrests of 118 immigrants this past week, leading to protestors gathering outside a federal detention center that was allegedly holding the detainees. Protests then erupted in Paramount after it appeared federal law enforcement officers were conducting another immigration operation in the Latino and working-class suburb, before spreading to the city of Compton.
Yet despite the largely peaceful protests, Trump took the decision to deploy the National Guard, despite objections from California governor Gavin Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass. It was the first time in 60 years that a U.S. president activated a state’s National Guard without a request from its governor.
"If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. (Author’s note: The National Guard were delayed for hours in responding to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, mainly because Trump did not request that they be deployed on the day of the riot.)
Trump signed the memo ordering the deployment around 6:00 p.m. Pacific. He then boarded Air Force One and flew to New Jersey to attend a UFC event. By nightfall, he was strutting into the arena to a standing ovation as Kid Rock’s “American Badass” blasted from the speakers. Fighters bowed before him—some climbed the cage to shake his hand, others kneeled in reverence. UFC champion Kayla Harrison embraced him, planted a kiss on his cheek, and wrapped her championship belt around his waist as his family and supporters looked on in delight. It was a spectacle befitting the strongman Trump imagines himself to be.
Make no mistake about it: Trump’s appearance at UFC 316 was an authoritarian flex—an opportunity to revel in the adoration of an audience trained to appreciate his presence. When Trump appeared at a UFC event months after the Jan. 6 insurrection, the crowd cheered. When he returned after being found guilty on 34 felony counts, the crowd cheered. And when he showed up at UFC 314 in Miami amid a bungled trade war and a collapsing economy of his own making, the crowd—you guessed it—cheered.
No audience has proven more reflexively obedient than UFC fans. They are Trump’s perfect crowd: conditioned to worship strength, programmed to mistake dominance for leadership, and incapable of recognizing their own humiliation. They leap to their feet at his arrival, like well-trained dogs desperate for their master’s approval. What they do not realize is that their loyalty is not appreciated—it is weaponized by a man known for exploiting and discarding his most loyal foot soldiers.
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