Trump and his allies wasted little time in branding the people protesting against immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles as “insurrectionists”.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy
– particularly the vindictive kind
– spoke darkly of a “violent insurrection”.
JD Vance, the vice-president, inveighed against “insurrectionists carrying foreign flags” on the streets of the nation’s second-biggest city.
It didn’t escape notice that an insurrection was exactly what Trump was accused of instigating on 6 January 2021,
when the flag being paraded through the Capitol was that of the Confederate secessionists.
And that Trump hadn’t shown quite the same enthusiasm for sending in the troops then.
But simply accusing the leader of the Maga movement of hypocrisy feels like such a 2015 move -- It barely registers as news these days.
What’s really notable is that this is the latest example of Trump’s childish tactic of repurposing criticisms of himself to attack his enemies.
The world was first introduced to this manoeuvre on 19 October 2016 during a presidential debate in Las Vegas. -- When Hillary Clinton accused Trump of being Vladimir Putin’s puppet, Trump shot back: “No puppet, no puppet … No, you’re the puppet.
