Stephen Collinson: “Donald Trump is talking and acting like an authoritarian as he escalates a constitutional clash with California over his migration crackdown.”

“Much now depends on whether he’s simply talking tough or if he’s ready to take an already-tense nation across a fateful line in his zeal for strongman rule.”

“In a mind-boggling moment, on Monday, the president of the United States — the country seen as the world’s top steward of democracy for 80 years — endorsed the arrest of the Democratic governor of the nation’s most populous state.”

“The specter of federally controlled troops in American streets has historically signaled a seismic social crisis, from forcing integration in Arkansas to protecting civil rights marchers in Alabama. But President Donald Trump sent the National Guard to Los Angeles at a time when state and local officials said they had protests there under control,” the Washington Post reports.

“The move reflects an increasingly evident pattern of his presidency: Trump declares an emergency or crisis where many others do not see one, enabling him to take sweeping actions, rally supporters and fight on political terrain he finds favorable.”

The Pentagon significantly escalated the federal response to the immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles on Monday, mobilizing a battalion of 700 Marines and doubling the number of California National Guard troops in what officials described as a limited mission to protect federal property and agents, even as President Trump described the situation as “very well under control,” the New York Times reports.