'A darker tone': Conservative warns Trump is pushing America into dangerous instability
In a sobering column published by The New York Times on Sunday, June 8, Never Trump conservative David French offered a grim analysis of the United States' political climate during Donald Trump's second presidency. French lamented that "each new day brings us fresh evidence of a deeply troubling trend: America is no longer a stable country, and it is growing less stable by the day."
The following days offered plenty of events to back up French's argument, from tense ongoing protests in Downtown Los Angeles to Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) being physically removed from a June 12 briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
Trump's decision to federalize California National Guard troops and send the U.S. Marines to Downtown L.A. has some military experts fearing that the situation there could go from bad to worse. And this Saturday, June 14, large "No Kings" demonstrations are planned for cities all over the U.S. in response to Trump's military/birthday parade in Washington, DC.
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During a Friday, June 13 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," French warned that Trump is doing everything he can to "escalate" tensions and make the U.S. increasingly unstable.
French told MSNBC's Willie Geist, his colleague Katty Kay and presidential historian Jon Meacham — who was also featured as a guest — "I do think celebrating the 250th anniversary of the (U.S.) Army is worth something certainly. However, the context overall here is what makes this, to the extent that I'm troubled about this — it's the context overall here. On the one hand, a military parade to honor the 250th anniversary of one of our branches of the military doesn't seem objectionable. On the other hand, (Trump) just came from a rally (where) he turned an appearance in front of the troops into what was hard to distinguish from a political rally, with reporting that the troops who were behind him were screened for appearance and potential loyalty to Trump — that those who were not going to be liking what Trump was going say were not going to be behind him."
French continued, "And then you have the deployment of troops into Los Angeles on really a pretext and an escalation in Los Angeles, really, on a pretext of a violent incident that, though serious, certainly didn't indicate the collapse of California's ability to control its streets. So that that greater context, I think, is the element that I'm worried about here."
The U.S., French warned, is seeing an environment of "escalation" during Trump's second presidency.
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"The larger context of constant escalation, constant escalation puts a darker tone on it, a darker spin on it," the Never Trump conservative told the panel.
Meacham agreed with French's comments, adding, "I would suggest to everybody that whether it's Los Angeles or the parade — whatever it might be — a really good question to ask yourself is: Is what we're doing as a country at this particular hour fulfilling the implications of the promise of the Declaration (of Independence)? Or is it pulling us farther away?"
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