Maxine Waters warns Trump’s military deployment in LA is part of a more sinister agenda

“He’s going to try and call martial law,” said the longtime California congresswoman.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is sounding the alarm after President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines to her city of Los Angeles, warning that this is only the beginning if there isn’t enough public pushback.

The 17-term congresswoman accused Trump of playing politics with his executive action that is currently being legally challenged by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Waters said the convicted felon turned second-term president is using the chaos of the moment to show “how powerful” he is and that he’s “in control.”

By setting up a clash between U.S. military and civilians on the streets of LA, the longtime California lawmaker said Trump is “provoking and trying to get violence going.” She stoically warned, “He’s going to try and call martial law.”

A U.S. president invoking martial law, in which civilian rule is placed under military control for purposes of national security, has only happened a handful of times–most notably by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

Waters, a longtime vocal opponent of Trump dating back to his first term–when she notably was the first to call for his impeachment–explained that Trump, during his second term, is bulldozing past limitations he encountered during his first term in office, aiming to expand the powers of the presidency.

“The president, having served, really began to understand the power of the presidency and the uses of executive orders, and he’s using it now. Everything that he didn’t do in his first term, he is using it now,” she expressed. “A lot of it is to enrich himself, to create his power, to align himself with certain international interests. He’s doing it all.”

Rep. Waters expressed concern that the American public hasn’t “caught up yet with the harm that he’s causing,” explaining that deploying the National Guard and the Marines to an American city and hosting a military parade masked as “his birthday celebration” is all part of “aligning himself with the armed forces.”

Critics have explained the historical danger of a U.S. president using the military in such a way. Authoritarians and dictators have used what is called “military supremacy” as a tool to centralize and maintain power, ultimately usurping the power from citizens–as done by Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s and present-day leaders like Kim Jong Un of North Korea and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

“It is so unbelievable that I don’t think people get it in the way that they should. The ax hasn’t fallen quite yet,” Waters said of the public awareness of the dangers of Trump’s latest escalation. She said the president’s use of military force is “all consistent with his agenda to exercise power.” She said it also sends a message to his MAGA base of supporters that “he’s going to make sure that all these migrants and people of color, all of this DEI…is going to be stopped because none of us deserve the right to success and to advance our causes.”

The 86-year-old congresswoman also lamented that in addition to military control, deporting immigrant neighbors, and eliminating diversity efforts meant to create equity for historically disadvantaged and marginalized Americans, Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act“–currently being worked through in the U.S. Senate–will only cause further harm for Black and Brown communities.

“When Medicaid is cut, when education is cut, when the housing and Section 8 is eliminated or cut, it’s going to be very hard. Many of the most vulnerable people in this society, and that includes us, Black and Brown people, are going to really get hit hard,” Waters cautioned.

Seemingly acknowledging the limitations of what she and Democrats can do in Congress without a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives or Senate, Waters urged the public to use their First Amendment rights to speak out against the Trump administration.

“If we don’t understand that the fight is in the streets and non-violent protests have to grow and grow and grow, then [Trump’s] going to be successful,” she explained. “But the more people that are on the street, the more he’s attacking LA and Chicago and New York and on and on, that’s more opportunities we have to start to shut him down.”