Troops in the streets and political violence: Americans grapple with a charged moment

For a nation on edge, a weekend of patriotic celebration and widespread free-speech participation brought new signs of democracy’s strength – as well as its vulnerability.

The organizers of Saturday’s coast-to-coast “No Kings” demonstrations had sought to counter President Donald Trump’s military parade in Washington, and serve up a split screen moment. On one side would be a spectacle of military might, on the other a display of peaceful mass protest against government overreach.

But what began as a split screen became more of a kaleidoscope, a window into a fractured nation that’s been beset by political unrest, feuding, and even violence.

Ahead of Saturday’s parade and demonstrations, tensions had already spiked over Mr. Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles against the wishes of the governor, amid protests over federal immigration raids. On Thursday, a federal judge in California ruled that the deployment was unconstitutional, a decision immediately stayed by an appeals court. That same day, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed when he interrupted a press event in Los Angeles featuring Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. The incident sparked outrage and finger pointing across the aisle in California and Washington.

U.S. Marines stand guard outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building during a No Kings Day protest against President Donald Trump’s policies, in Los Angeles, California, June 14, 2025.

Then on Saturday, as tanks and troops prepared to roll through the nation’s capital, news broke of the early morning slaying of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota and the attempted killing of another Democratic lawmaker and his wife, eight miles away. On Sunday night, the alleged gunman was caught after a manhunt. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the shootings political assassinations.

For historians, this fraught moment has the hallmarks of past cycles of U.S. political conflict and contestations over the legitimacy of street protest.

“None of this is particularly new,” says Ellen Fitzpatrick, a history professor at the University of New Hampshire. What is new, though, is the pattern set by a president “who is willing to, at best, test the boundaries of the executive powers of the president, and who seems perfectly willing to redefine those powers in ways that are unrecognizable to even judges whom he himself has appointed to the federal court.”

A key test of the president’s use of the military

Mr. Trump’s administration has lost several high-profile lawsuits over his executive orders and other actions, while winning others. But the lawsuit over sending thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles, where protests have continued against detentions of migrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, could be a pivotal one. The legal order Mr. Trump signed June 7 – which also paved the way for deploying a battalion of active-duty Marines – isn’t limited to Los Angeles; critics say it provides cover for the militarization of a mass deportation program.

What many Republicans see on the streets of Los Angeles and other Democratic-run cities is an effort to block the president’s legitimate enforcement of federal law. They accuse Democrats of undermining lawful operations against immigrants who have no legal right to be in this country. Mr. Walz, a Democrat who ran for vice president last year, drew criticism in recent days for calling ICE officers Mr. Trump’s “modern-day Gestapo.”

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, dressed in World War I era uniforms, march past the viewing stand and President Trump during a military parade commemorating the Army’s 250th anniversary, coinciding with his 79th birthday, June 14, 2025, in Washington.

On the streets of Washington, observers gathered on Saturday to watch a parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, a date that coincided with Mr. Trump’s 79th birthday. The last time military vehicles and brass bands rolled through the capital was in 1991 to celebrate victory in the Gulf War; peacetime parades are much rarer.

Many who turned out seemed unaware or uninterested in the political overtones of the parade, which critics assailed as a presidential vanity project that belonged in Beijing or Moscow. It’s “a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing,” enthuses Andrew Mourog, a Maryland resident who is considering enlisting. “I’m just here to see some history, see some pretty cool vehicles.”

Jerry Henson’s son, an infantryman, was in the parade so Mr. Henson wasn’t going to miss it. “We’re all here to support him,” says the retired utility lineman and two-time Trump voter, sitting with his grandson and another relative. He says he supported the right to protest but was concerned about the violence in Los Angeles.

There were plenty of MAGA hats in the crowd, as well as families clad in red, white, and blue clothing. Flags adorned the viewing stand as more of them descended with a parachute team from overhead.

“I feel like it can happen to anyone”

Flags were also on display, some turned upside down, at No Kings marches across America. Organizers estimated more than 5 million people turned out in 2,100 cities and towns. While independent estimates were not available, news reports documented large crowds in major cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. The vast majority were peaceful, though police in Los Angeles used tear gas to disperse protesters who stayed after the event ended.

Earlier in the week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned of a “perilous moment” for democracy after Mr. Trump’s unilateral order of troops to Los Angeles. “This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first – but it clearly will not end here,” he said. He added, “Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived.”

Some participants in Saturday’s demonstrations voiced similar trepidation.

Sarah Wideman, who joined the Women’s March in Washington in 2017 to oppose Mr. Trump’s first term, took part in an event held in Denver. She says this moment feels different. “It feels scarier to me,” she says, noting the lack of due process for immigrants under this administration. “If that can happen to immigrants, I feel like it can happen to anyone in America.”

Sarah Matusek/The Christian Science Monitor

Sarah Wideman joins a No Kings demonstration in Denver, June 14, 2025, one of many protesters with an American flag.

Donald Young came to Denver dressed as a Founding Father and carrying a copy of the Declaration of Independence. A Democrat, he says “we should be screaming from the rooftops” about Mr. Trump’s undermining of the rule of law. “The Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves,” reads a sign around his neck. “Congress has capitulated. SCOTUS is eviscerated,” he says, referring to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In Thousand Oaks, California, hundreds of people gathered on an overpass crossing the 101 highway north of Los Angeles. Greg Yulish, a bread manufacturer, says some of his employees are afraid to turn up for work because of ICE raids. Detaining taxpaying workers who have no criminal record is unjust, he adds. He says he’s never protested before “but this really struck a chord.”

He cites Mr. Newsom’s warning about democracy and says people need to stand up to Mr. Trump or else “we’re just going to be an also-ran country with a puppet dictator.”

Candace Kaplan, a retired American Airlines employee, says Mr. Trump is a threat to democracy because he ignores the law and “nobody’s been able to stop him. And we absolutely have to.” But she thinks people are becoming aware of these violations. “The only good thing that Donald Trump has done for me is he woke me up. He doesn’t like ‘woke,’ but he’s waking people up, whether he likes it or not, with his actions.”

Ali Martin/The Christian Science Monitor

Candace Kaplan joins a No Kings protest in Thousand Oaks, California, June 14, 2025. “Donald Trump… woke me up,” she says. “He doesn’t like woke, but he’s waking people up.”

Sounding the alarm or crying wolf?

Yet as Democrats issue ever more urgent warnings about Mr. Trump’s administration, their message about democracy-at-stake faces a challenge: Voters have heard it before. The first Trump administration featured a series of controversies and thunderous warnings of democratic erosion. He was twice impeached, the second time for inciting the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to reverse his 2020 election defeat. On his return to the White House, he pardoned some 1,600 people convicted for taking part in that Jan. 6, 2021 attack.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly urged voters to reject Mr. Trump and his Republican Party because they were a threat to democracy. That message did little to prop up Ms. Harris, who ran on the Democratic ticket during an election dominated by immigration, inflation, and other issues on which Mr. Trump had an edge.

As a candidate, Mr. Trump explicitly said that he would use the National Guard as part of a mass deportation program and that he would also consider using active-duty military. “If I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military, per se. We have to have safety in our country,” he told Time Magazine in April, 2024.

Mr. Trump’s supporters say that this describes what the administration has been doing in Los Angeles to protect public safety. Opponents see a more worrying step toward a politicized military that, over time, could become normalized and undermine civilian self-governance.

The 9th Circuit appeals court, which stayed the June 12 ruling against the Trump administration over the troops in LA, will hold a hearing Tuesday. Two judges of the three-member panel that paused the ruling are Trump appointees; the other was appointed by President Biden.

Should the administration prevail, it would have legal authority to surge military units to other cities. Analysts say that putting troops on the streets who aren’t trained in law enforcement can be risky, given that ICE raids are likely to face obstruction by residents and protesters.

Sarah Matusek/The Christian Science Monitor

Anti-ICE protesters march through downtown Denver, June 14, 2025.

The war of words over military deployments in support of ICE has already made things “much tenser” between Democrats and Republicans, says Rachel VanLandingham, a former judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force. That a U.S. senator was bundled out of an administration event in front of cameras is another potentially worrying sign. “Everyone is on a hair trigger,” she says.

Some of the latest messages from President Trump on immigration are mixed. On Thursday he signaled he would back off investigations affecting certain industries heavily reliant on immigrant labor, including agriculture and hotels.

Yet the White House’s demand that ICE meet a target of 3,000 arrests a day so that Mr. Trump delivers on his administration’s reported goal of 1 million deportations a year appears to be driving the intensity of ICE activities. Administration officials have said that noncooperation from law enforcement in “sanctuary” cities in handing over migrants held in jails has forced ICE to track down migrants at their homes, workplaces, and, in some cases, immigration-related court hearings.

The White House memo issued June 7 authorized the deployment of troops, including active-duty soldiers, in other states and cities for 60 days or at the discretion of the secretary of defense. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a June 10 congressional hearing that more troops could be sent to cities “if there are riots … where law enforcement officers are threatened.”

Active-duty forces aren’t allowed to make arrests but can briefly hold violent individuals before turning them over to law enforcement, Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, the commander of the LA federal troops, told The Associated Press. He said the Guard troops and Marines are being trained on civil unrest and crowd control. “We are not law enforcement. This is not how we train,” Major General Sherman said, referring to their instructions.

“I’m trying to defend our country”

In Pflugerville, Texas, a suburb of Austin, hundreds of protesters turned out Saturday. Many cheered as cars drove by honking their horns in support.

Wesley Webb, a Navy veteran, wasn’t sure about going, though he’s critical of Mr. Trump. What got him off his seat was the president’s comment that anyone who protested against the military parade in Washington “will be met with very heavy force.”

“That is a direct First Amendment violation. That got my blood boiling,” says Mr. Webb.

Henry Gass/The Christian Science Monitor

Abhiram Garpati counterprotests at a “No Kings” demonstration outside Austin, Texas, June 14, 2025. “We are a democracy, and everybody at least has to listen and respect the other side,” he says.

Across the intersection, standing on the median between four lanes of traffic, Abhiram Garpati was standing alone in a MAGA hat carrying Trump-Vance signs. In a calm voice like Mr. Webb’s, he offers an alternative view. “I’m trying to defend our country,” he says. “What they’re trying to do is destroy our nation.”

Mr. Garpati received support from some cars driving past – a few drivers asked for Trump signs – but most honked at him. One driver called him a clown. Police kept a close eye on protesters who approached him.

A few hours later, Mr. Garpati, who has run repeated unsuccessful campaigns for Congress, stood outside the Texas Capitol in Austin. Alone again, with his red Trump hat and Trump campaign signs, nobody seemed to bother him.

“We are a democracy, and everybody at least has to listen and respect the other side,” he says.

This story was reported by Simon Montlake in Boston, Caitlin Babcock in Washington, Henry Gass in Austin, Texas, Sarah Matusek in Denver, and Ali Martin in Thousand Oaks, California.