The Democratic leadership in California is in shambles, and nowhere is that more evident than in the response to the ongoing riots engulfing Los Angeles. While Governor Gavin Newsom appears emotionally and politically rattled, and L.A.
Mayor Karen Bass pleads with residents to remove graffiti like it’s a community clean-up drive, Representative Maxine Waters has managed to outdo them all in self-inflicted embarrassment.
Waters began the chaos-filled week with a failed stunt, attempting to breach an ICE detention facility only to have the door unceremoniously shut in her face—a moment of unintended comedy that captured the emptiness of her activism. But what followed was more telling. From the Capitol podium, Waters declared with jaw-dropping confidence that “there was no violence” in Los Angeles. That claim didn’t survive long.
In a jarring reversal during a Wednesday interview, Waters finally acknowledged the violence, but with a twist: she blamed former President Donald Trump.
According to Waters, the federal government’s enforcement of immigration laws—targeting primarily convicted criminals—is what “provoked” the unrest. In other words, enforcing the law is now apparently an act of aggression.
The absurdity of this logic speaks for itself. Waters has shifted the narrative from denying the violence entirely to accusing Trump of orchestrating it indirectly through enforcement. It’s the political equivalent of setting your own house on fire and blaming the neighbor for calling the fire department.
Even more troubling is the underlying argument: that immigration law enforcement is not only wrong but incites violence—and therefore should be halted. It’s a moral inversion.
Instead of calling for calm or urging their base to stop rioting, Waters and her allies portray federal law enforcement as the villain, while sidestepping any responsibility for the criminal actions unfolding in their streets.
The idea that Trump somehow benefits from Los Angeles descending into chaos is both cynical and illogical. If anything, it underscores the vacuum of leadership within the city and the state. The rioters aren’t spurred by a passionate defense of immigrants. They’re seizing an opportunity to sow chaos—an effort all too often tolerated or excused by progressive politicians who mistake anarchic fervor for social justice.
