Watching from the audience in the Kennedy Center, Donald Trump would no doubt identify with the protagonist in Les Misérables.
Jean Valjean is, after all, a felon who rebuilds his life. He owns a factory and becomes mayor. He finds redemption.
With Melania at his side, and the seats filled with donors who have paid up to $2 million each to join the president, Trump’s world is more cosseted. Less Cosette.
Inside the reconstituted center no longer resembling anything Kennedy (RFK Jr. notwithstanding), all talk of revolution is confined to the stage and a bygone era in 19th-century France. And Valjean remains one step ahead of the law.
Trump is chairman of the Kennedy Center board he has personally picked. He is the king. The audience is there at his favor, as is his Cabinet and the Republican lawmakers who have bent to his will.
Outside, though, the people aren’t singing. They are beginning to fight.
For generations, Los Angeles has been an enduring symbol of American optimism. The promised land of sun-kissed beaches and Hollywood dreams.
On the day Beach Boy Brian Wilson died, downtown L.A. was under curfew, and Marines and National Guard troops walked the streets. Six days of rioting on the West Coast put the entire country on edge.
The city with fire seared into its consciousness was once again in flames.
It represented the perfect opportunity for the president who would be king.
Trump is always the main character of his own story, and he has found the perfect way to move the plot along from last week’s Tesla car-wreck of a squabble with Elon Musk.
The Democratic Party was outfoxed and out-hought when it was forced to defend the deported Maryland dad, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with a history that is questionable at least. Now, Trump was doubling down on the “insurrectionists” protesting against the ICE raids that have turned 7-Elevens and Home Depots around the nation into no-go zones for minorities.
The Authoritarian Show was playing to Trump’s core audience. Karoline Leavitt called the L.A. protests “left-wing riots.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Trump buddy, called in the National Guard—just in case.
The president also presented a heavily politically oriented MAGA rally to troops at Fort Bragg on Tuesday.
A military parade to celebrate Trump’s 79th birthday and the Army’s 250th anniversary will rumble around Washington, D.C. on Saturday as a reminder of the president’s power. He likes strong men. He considers himself one. Parades are what they do.
But not everyone is buying it.
California Governor Gavin Newsom sees Trump more as a Star Wars villain, making his autocratic move. Newsom believes this is the time for his close-up, but he is insistent that bringing in the military is over the top.
It’s Trump’s latest production, Law and Order: Special ICE Unit.
“Deploying military forces and conducting militarized ICE raids in immigrant neighborhoods is not about public safety,” said Arturo Flores, Mayor of Huntington Park. “It is about political theater that is rooted in fear.”
On Tuesday, 86 protesters were arrested during an anti-ICE demonstration in Chicago. There have been disturbances in Dallas, New York, and Washington, D.C. Activists across the country are planning protests on Saturday as part of the “No Kings” movement.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt walked out of her press briefing when she was pressed about the 1st Amendment. The spokeswoman for the White House didn’t want to discuss free speech.
She was asked earlier if she thought Trump saw himself as a king.
“The president views himself as the president of the United States of America,” she said. “This is a constitutional republic.”
Fine words, indeed.
It’s a popular misconception that Victor Hugo based his epic 1862 novel, Les Misérables, on the French Revolution of 1789. He actually used the June Rebellion of 1832, when a group of revolutionaries tried to overthrow the French government.
More than 100,000 Parisians raised barricades and rioted in the hopes of overthrowing the newly established King Louis Philippe. They were ultimately crushed by 20,000 National Guard troops and 40,000 regular army soldiers drafted into the capital.
The show of power was successful, at least for a while. In 1848, the monarchy fell after Louis Philippe sought to hand the throne down to his 9-year-old grandson. It was the beginning of the Second French Republic.
“King” Donald is taking a calculated risk in ignoring the First Amendment. But in suppressing democracy in such brazen fashion, he may be risking the future of America’s 236-year republic.
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