Trump said people participating in protests in Los Angeles will not be allowed to wear masks and praised the National Guard for “a job well done” after deploying them to the city to settle the protests.
“These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED,” he wrote on Truth Social early Sunday morning. “Also, from now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide, and why???”
I’m pretty sure that’s not within his power to dictate people can’t wear masks.
To be fair, people have been saying “I’m pretty sure that’s not within his power to dictate” for the past six months or so, and it hasn’t done a whole hell of a lot of good. Granted, this will be more difficult to enforce, but I can see a whole lot of people being arrested on a whole lot of trumped-up charges for wearing masks at a protest.
As illegal as his order may be, it’ll still end up being you that is arrested. You that is put in jail. You that is denied your civil rights. You that will have to face an uphill battle in a MAGA-rigged court system with virtually no resources against the US government. Trump will face no repercussions. He is immune from prosecution. He will not even know your name, much less be inconvenienced by your arrest. He can pardon any cronies who are charged for violating your civil rights. Trump knows this, and he is acting accordingly. He knows that the fact that this battle is so lopsided in his favor is itself enough of a deterrent to make many rank-and-file people back down.
He knows the order is illegal. But he also knows that the overwhelming majority of people aren’t in a position to do anything about it.
As the old saying goes, “you can beat the rap but you can’t beat the ride.” You’ll be arrested and sent through the court system for the charges to be eventually dropped because it’s not actually a law that you can’t wear a mask.
That’s assuming it gets that far. If your skin is a little too brown for their liking, you could find yourself on an involuntary tropical vacation at one of Trump’s increasing number of third world hellholes. Good luck getting a hold of anyone that speaks English, much less get in touch with your family or getting the charges dropped.
Don’t worry, Chuck Schumer will lower his glasses and give him a very stern look.
No, Susan Collins will do that.
Chuck Schumer will protest Trump’s order until it’s time to vote in favor of legislation criminalizing mask use. Then he’ll support it at the last second while the rest of the Dems in the senate act shocked and surprised.
Strongly-worded letter to follow.
I definitely agree with you, I just felt like it needed pointed out. I don’t think people should stop calling out the unlawful/illegal shit he does just because he does unlawful/illegal shit all the time.
It’s pretext to be able to designate a riot when someone in a peaceful protest has a mask.
That, and/or they’ll do the time-consuming thing of recognizing people that aren’t wearing masks, and arresting them at their homes or places of work.
Probably not de jure, but like most things, no one is stopping him, so he will continue to dictate.
Oh, I hear you. I just wanted to point it out.