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Trump’s Fake L.A. Invasion Is Giant Bait & Switch

Troops on the streets distracted from Agent Orange’s failures

4 min readJun 16, 2025

I have been recently listening to Trump biographer Michael Wolff during his appearances on “The Daily Beast” podcast. He made a very pertinent comment about the current president.

Wolff said Trump is a performer and he sees the entire world as his stage. His mastery of performance art and media manipulation won him the presidency in 2016. And in 2024, he used those dark arts to con his way into the White House again. King TACO was also aided by the corporate media, which helped destroy President Joe Biden, and about $300 million from Elon Musk.

Invasion L.A.

However, analyzing Wolff’s comments gives you a nuanced view of Trump’s failed “liberation of Los Angeles.” Trump broke the law by sending about 5,000 soldiers to the West Coast city experiencing unrest in a small area of downtown.

It was a wasteful, illegal and frightening act. It cost about $140 million and most of the troops spent their time waiting around in the hot sun.

But it did change the new cycle. And for those who’ve been watching Trump since 2016, we know that’s all he cares about. I learned from watching him back then that whenever he gets into a big…

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Manny Otiko
Manny Otiko

Written by Manny Otiko

Manny Otiko writes about race, politics and sports. He has been published in Salon and LA Weekly. Follow him at @mannyotiko.bsky.social

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