Timothy Kudo, a military veteran who served as a U.S. Marines Corps captain, warned Tuesday that Donald Trump deploying Marines and National Guard troops to protests in Los Angeles could “end horrifically.”
Kudo revealed to MSNBC’s Alex Witt that the Marines sent to the demonstrations against the president’s immigration policies — the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines — are an infantry unit that’s trained for “many months” to “close with and destroy the enemy.”
“The training that they’ve just had on how to deal with civilians, maybe they’ve gotten in the past 24 to 48 hours, if that,” Kudo said.
The 700 Marines that arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday were reportedly set to be issued a card by the Pentagon with guidelines advising them what to do while protecting federal personnel and property in the city.
Their deployment will cost a whopping $134 million, a figure that covers troops’ housing, food and travel for 60 days, per acting Defense Department Undersecretary Bryn MacDonnell.
Kudo chuckled and shook his head in disapproval when Witt mentioned the Pentagon’s “card” for troops before explaining that it’s likely tied to the “Standing Rules for the Use of Force,” which applies to how soldiers should conduct “escalation of force [and] engagement with civilians.”
“Unfortunately, a card runs contrary to how they’ve been trained for this many months, since boot camp even,” said Kudo before referring back to the Marine unit’s training.
Kudo proceeded to underscore the communication challenges that could arise in Los Angeles between local law enforcement and the Marines.
He noted that in 1992, when the Insurrection Act was last invoked by George H. W. Bush during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Marines fired hundreds of bullets on a home when a police officer said “cover me” (this means “something entirely different” to a Marine) while they were on a domestic violence call.
“Thankfully,” he added, no one was killed inside the home.
Kudo, when later asked what seems to get under Trump’s “skin” about Los Angeles, said he thinks Trump “hates” the city’s multiculturalism.
“Having grown up there … it’s a wonderful place where there’s a lot of activism and a lot of protest and a lot of engagement by the citizenry,” said Kudo, a Santa Monica native.
“It’s a hugely diverse city and I think it’s something that scares him because it’s a vision of America that he’s entirely opposed to.”