Daniel W. Drezner writes:

This is not actually about anarchy in Portland because the city seems both ordered and copacetic with what’s happening. This is about something else. What political gain does Trump see from escalating and nationalizing this situation?

One possibility is that he believes this kind of law-and-order “performative authoritarianism” as a winning move because it a) is not about covid-19 and b) plays into old partisan divisions. According to my Post colleagues Nick Miroff and Mark Berman, Trump characterized the unrest in Portland as “worse than Afghanistan” and said, “We’re looking at Chicago, too. We’re looking at New York. … All run by very liberal Democrats. All run, really, by the radical left.” Maybe Trump thinks that he can use DHS forces to goad protesters into violent actions that lead to greater political support.

This might be true, but it also demonstrates the degree to which the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman is correct: Trump’s view of his base has devolved into a complete caricature of what conservatives want: [Continue reading…]