Every time someone tells me how great the weather is in California, I roll my eyes. I’ve no doubt they’re telling the truth. But I’ve always wondered if the sunshine is enough to compensate for the high taxes, illegal immigration, and spontaneous wildfires. Oh, and did I mention the incompetent government?

Last week, I was on the East Coast in New York City, teaching interns at one of America’s largest banks. While NYC ain’t what it used to be, it’s remarkably better since Mayor Eric Adams stopped playing ball with the Democratic party.

Isn’t it incredible what a fabricated sexual assault case can do for a man? He stopped listening to his “donors” - a fitting rhyme with “owners” - and cleaned up the city of its illegal population. NYC looks livable again, at least, not that I ever would.

“Mayor Adams is running as an independent leader for all New Yorkers—and that means he’s being supported by both Democrats and Republicans who care about results, not rhetoric,” Adams’ spokesperson said in a statement.

Right now, NYC bigwigs are trying to keep socialist Zohran Mamdani out of Gracie Mansion. They may be left-of-center, but they know what would happen if actual socialists like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass ran their city.

I watch the 2025 edition of the LA Riots with a quizzical gaze.

Are there Mexicans running around Southern California with Mexican flags, burning ICE vehicles and detention centers? Is the Governor angry at The Donald for calling in the National Guard? Does the Mayor have a damn clue?

Troy had its tall walls, but still fell to Agamemnon’s 1,000 ships. America has borders with two weak countries to its north and south, and thousands of miles of ocean on its east and west coasts.

With Troy, the Greeks had to build a horse to get into the city. In America, the gates are wide open.

Can Trump and Homan close them? That’s the question.

Trump Brings the Hammer Down on Los Chaos

The headlines were predictable, the footage horrifying, and the political spin recycled.

But what we witnessed in Los Angeles over the weekend wasn’t some organic outcry over injustice. It was premeditated, coordinated chaos—triggered by long-overdue ICE enforcement operations, and escalated by radical agitators, cartel-aligned elements, and a feckless local government unwilling or unable to defend its city. What followed was an urban breakdown of serious proportions—fires, looting, assaults on law enforcement, and even an attempted assassination of freeway patrol officers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting illegal immigrants suspected of engaging in criminal activity, document fraud, and labor trafficking were the spark. These weren’t random door knocks. They were precision operations hitting suspected hubs of criminal migrant labor—warehouse districts, garment factories, and street labor collection points like Home Depot lots.

According to ICE, dozens of detentions were made. Some involved individuals have cartel connections. And yet, LA city leadership and activists immediately painted these moves as “racial targeting” and “unconstitutional overreach.”

By Saturday night, the city was predictably on fire. Downtown intersections were barricaded. Masked agitators torched Waymo self-driving vehicles. LAPD officers were pelted with bricks, fireworks, and frozen water bottles.

DHS confirmed a 413% increase in direct assaults on federal officers over the weekend alone. California Highway Patrol patrolmen came under fire from a rooftop while attempting to clear I-10, and at least one foreign journalist—an Australian national—was injured by crowd-control munitions while filming the melee. This wasn’t civil disobedience. It was urban warfare.

That’s when the President stepped in.

Trump Federalizes the Guard—Over Newsom’s Head

On Sunday morning, President Donald J. Trump invoked rarely-used powers to federalize the California National Guard, deploying 2,000 troops into the greater Los Angeles area without the consent of Governor Gavin Newsom. That’s an extraordinary measure, but not without precedent.

The last time it happened was in 1965, when President Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to protect civil rights marchers during the Selma to Montgomery marches, after Alabama Governor George Wallace refused to act to ensure their safety.

LBJ didn’t do much right, but Trump’s move echoed that decisive energy. If the state refuses to act, the federal government will.

While Democrat leaders ironically screamed “authoritarianism,” “insurrection,” and “constitutional overreach,” Trump wasted no time. National Guard units were positioned in key downtown intersections, at ICE and DHS facilities, and along critical freeway chokepoints.

Left-Wing Leadership in LA: Failure on Parade

Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom, two darlings of the American left wing, condemned the federal response as “escalatory” and “provocative.” But their credibility was already crumbling. For years, Los Angeles has flouted immigration enforcement, turning itself into a de facto sanctuary city while criminalizing cooperation with ICE. As a result, a parallel shadow economy emerged, filled with illegal labor, fentanyl trafficking, and black-market documentation rings.

These same leaders, who cheered open-border policies and virtue-signaled about being a “welcoming city,” now found themselves staring into the abyss of civil collapse. And when push came to shove, they had nothing: no plan, no will, no spine.

Bass urged “peaceful protest.” It fell on deaf ears. Newsom threatened lawsuits and dared the President to arrest him. Trump didn’t blink.

When Sovereignty Is Optional

The LA Riots of June 2025 didn’t just expose the dysfunction of local government—they exposed the entire façade of “progressive federalism.” When cities openly defy federal law and shield violent non-citizens from deportation, they create the conditions for precisely this kind of breakdown. You can’t run a nation with Swiss cheese borders, selective law enforcement, and a patchwork of ideological resistance zones. That’s not policy—it’s Balkanization.

Trump’s move to assert federal authority was necessary, legal, and long overdue. We cannot maintain national cohesion if entire cities are permitted to flout immigration law, harbor fugitives, and then cry foul when the consequences arrive. No sovereign state can survive such internal contradictions.

The real question isn’t why Trump acted. The real question is what took so long—and how many other American cities are one flashpoint away from the same fate? And what can you do to protect yourself?

What You Can Do

I’ve long said that you can’t save the world, but you can save yourself.

While the gold and silver miners had a down day on Friday, they’ve been soaring since last November. I’ve been long Endeavour Silver (EXK) since then. In the pre-market this morning, it’s up 3.78%.

My friend and colleague, Ian Culley, wrote “A Better Way to Trade Silver’s Breakout,” featuring EXK, in Truth and Trends, if you would like more evidence.

This kind of civil disturbance is what gets silver moving up. Right now, spot silver is trading at $36.26. It looks like we’ll be on our way to $50 soon.

Wrap Up

This weekend, we witnessed a turning point—not just for Los Angeles, but for the American experiment itself.

Do we have a functioning nation, where federal law is enforced and cities are protected? Or are we devolving into a fragmented map of ideological safe zones, each with its own rules, its borders, and its tolerance for violence?

For years, elites told us that enforcing immigration laws was racist, that protecting communities was fascist, and that cities should decide for themselves how much law and order to tolerate. Well, Los Angeles just showed us where that path leads: arson, anarchy, and assault rifles fired on overpasses.

Trump didn’t just deploy troops. He drew a line. And for the first time in a long time, America looks like a country that’s willing to stand up for itself.

Thank God someone in power still knows what that means.

In the meantime, there’s a silver lining to this story. Protect yourself —and your family —with it.