Notice Anything Different About the LA Riots on Monday?
At some point between Sunday night and Monday morning, it dawned on protest organizers that optics matter.
Did anyone notice the sudden abundance of American flags being waved around by participants in the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots on Monday?
At some point between Sunday night and Monday morning, it dawned on the event organizers that optics matter. The spectacle of protestors waving Mexican flags as they hurled rocks and other objects at law enforcement officers and torched vehicles over the weekend was sending the wrong message. After all, if they felt such reverence for the country they’d left behind, why were they fighting so hard to stay in the US?
Late Monday afternoon, independent journalist Aldo Buttazzoni observed organizers—dressed in matching black t-shirts reading “Anti Trump Social Club” in rainbow lettering—distributing American flags to protesters ahead of that night’s installment of the ongoing rage rally.
Later, he approached the group to ask why the flags had disappeared. One young woman replied, “We got rid of all of them. When they started coming, we were sitting ducks out here.”
Buttazzoni told them the flags were a good idea. They agreed—and said they planned to bring them back out later.
He posted this brief exchange on X, explaining, “It’s clear they realized the current optics were a disaster—now they’re intentionally using American Flags in an attempt to rebrand and reshape the existing media narrative of the riots.”
BREAKING: Organizers of LA Protests are now assembling and handing out American flags to protesters.
This comes after days of footage showing them waving Mexican flags while torching cars, attacking police and burning U.S. flags.
It’s clear they realized the current optics… pic.twitter.com/3iMPfSm4mj
— Aldo 🌞 (@AldoButtazzoni) June 10, 2025
Make no mistake: this so-called “protest” is a carefully orchestrated operation, coordinated by the Democratic Party. Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter offered an excellent explanation of what’s really going on in a Monday op-ed.
“This is not a battle of cops versus rioters,” Schlichter wrote. “It is a battle between narratives. Most people see regime media video of Third World savages waving the tacky banners of their garbage homelands, lighting fires, hassling cops, and doing other things consistent with being barbarians, and think that Los Angeles is in chaos and therefore get scared.
He continued:
The idea behind this color revolution – it is organized and planned, not spontaneous or genuine – is to intimidate normal people into submitting and embracing the politicians associated with its goals in the hopes that it will stop. This is the work of the Democrat Party; the rioters are its useful idiots, acting to support the party’s goals while its maintaining deniability. But this scheme only succeeds if the target is feckless and weak, which such targets usually are. Trump isn’t. He’s going to win this because he understands this fight better than his enemies. The chaos is an illusion; his strength is reality.
The Democratic Party is second to none when it comes to protest planning. They are practiced at the art of rapid mobilization. Through a well-established social media network that includes Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and live-video apps, they can organize a protest on short notice.
Schlichter is correct when he says this is a battle of narratives. At the moment, Democrats are trying to thwart the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants — even if they are criminals. After all, they worked hard to get them here.
The party has two problems at the moment. First, President Trump understands their modus operandi too well by now to hand the party a win. He knows that Democrats are using the riots to stop his agenda and he refuses to let that happen. When California Gov. Gavin Newsom refused to provide protection to ICE agents and federal property, Trump went over his head and called in 2,000 National Guard troops. Next, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mobilized 700 U.S. Marines to support the troops.
And despite Newsom’s lawsuit against him, Trump authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard troops on Monday.
[The last instance of a president deploying the National Guard without a governor’s consent occurred in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to safeguard civil rights marchers traveling from Selma to Montgomery—over the objections of Gov. George Wallace.]
The second challenge facing Democrats is that their tactics, through overuse, have become increasingly familiar—and predictable—to the public. A growing segment of the electorate now views them as the party of thugs. Many voters are beginning to perceive that the party is far more focused on consolidating power than on serving the best interests of the American people.
With the pivotal 2026 midterms approaching, Democrats are eager to broaden their appeal. They want to project patriotism and reconnect with mainstream voters—hence the idea of handing out American flags to protestors to neutralize the effect of the Mexican flags on display throughout the weekend.
Hopefully, voters will recognize this for what it is: a hollow and calculated gesture.
Chants of “Peaceful Protest!” ring out as demonstrators on the roof drop fireworks on police. This prompted officers to return fire, striking one of the men in the face with a crowd control munition.
I was also hit with what I believe is a pepper ball and something made of… pic.twitter.com/Y8BZNxvE29
— Aldo 🌞 (@AldoButtazzoni) June 10, 2025
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
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I notice that there’s not as many now as there was a while ago.
If we put up a good offense, perhaps they’ll began to runnin’ down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
“Gulf of America”
But that wouldn’t have worked for Johnny Horton.
It’s too late, anyways. That invader standing on a car waving a Mexican flag as vehicles burn around him will never go away. The NG and Marines being deployed to protect police , businesses and federal buildings are also what Americans see and after the St Floyd riots are all onboard
Might even be so fast that the hounds won’t be able to catch ’em.
“Comrades — we all hate this racist, capitalist, imperialist, colonialist, Zionist entity, but, for the sake of public relations and media consumption, we must wave a few American flags and pretend to love it.”
These goose-stepping, subversive, fifth columnist pukes — a motley crew of “Anti-fa” terrorist thugs, illegal alien criminals, genocidal Islamofascists/Muslim supremacists and Dhimmi-crats cosplaying at “revolutionary” — can wrap themselves in the American flag and wave American flags, but their self-serving and deceitful theatrics won’t fool anyone.
They are being coached about the optics and tactics. One of them is by Adam Kinzinger, posting his daily anti-Trump videos with his tips on how to take down the Republican party. He tells them to demand town hall meetings and his latest was about showing up to these “protests” with American Flags, not other country flags.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/anMuWQj_pX4
This is indeed indicative of a planned protest driven not by people but rather agendas.
There isn’t one bit of spontanious activity other than chunking rocks.
Occupy wall street, BLM, free palestine. Same people doing same things. This is how dems play the game now.
Crybaby Kinzinger never quits.
And on that topic… did he ever “quit” the GOP?
He hasn’t officially quit the GOP. He’s pandering to the Dems now in hopes he can win them over with his anti-Trump rants.
Who is organizing and funding the riots and why aren’t they arrested and charged? Hopefully we will see this happen with this administration. But I won’t hold my breath.
I’ve seen deep dives elsewhere but the short story is NGO’s funded by not only California but you federal tax dollars. The federal money has been shut off but Newsomes spigot is still on. The California Dems are funding groups burning down their cities
“The Democrat party is second to none when it comes to protest planning.” Remember , this statement also applies to rigging elections. Regardless how high Trump’s rating is, this is NO reason for conservatives to stay home. Work on elections, before, during and after
We will NOT WIN on polls.
the dnc warriors are doing what they do
these riots ARE A GOOD IDEA
IT WILL ONCE AGAIN put the fear into some voters that though they might not agree or like everything the dems do
that if you “want peace” you better vote against maga!!
Everything old is new again. Back in ’06 here in LA there were large pro-illegals protests/rallies that WERE actually mostly peaceful (albeit a major PITA traffic-wise). First day was wall-to-wall Mexican flags and they got roasted hard for it. The organizers moved fast and by the second day practically all of them had been replaced by the stars and stripes.
The hasty displaying of American flags is a stunt of performative, insincere and self-serving faux patriotism.
The vile Dhimmi-crats are well-versed in these theatrics — they engage in them every four years, at the Dhimmi-crat National Convention, waving copious American flags for four or five days, while the other 360 days of the year, these pukes are burning those same flags.
False Flag is the term. Jan 6, 2021 also.
Expect to see massive “protests” all over the country this Saturday. They are calling it No Kings Day. The organizer is called Indivisible. They are all over the country and have a website promoting the event. They want to upstage the US Army’s 250th military celebration, which they falsely claim Trump is making this his birthday celebration.
I’ll be surprised if anything happens in N.O. The BLM marches went over like a wet fart in church. The Occupy movement before that was coddled, but did reach the limit eventually.
Bwa h ha. “No Kings Day.”
As if the Democrats were holding anything higher than eights.
I think we should join them — but “No Latin Kings” should be our mantra.
I thought the idea of “False-Flag” attacks belonged in the realm of the conspiracy theorist back in 2012.
I have now seen it to be real…they even warned us that tyrants enter carrying a cross and wrapped in the flag.
Hell, no. I myself organized a successful one back in 2000.
same moment in time after the omar led attacks of 9 11
lefty ( most of them) shut down their anti americanism
were thankful that they were spared from their brothers actions ( but were grateful for those actions) and then when the literal smoke cleared
went back to business as usual
hate america and amp up the destruction
dont forget how much MORE HATEFUL nyc became
towards civility
Much too late. Far too many images and video captured of mobs composed in part by violent foreign aliens waving foreign flags while committing criminal acts; looting, arson, acts of violence and actions to violate the civil rights of US Citizens by impeding movement on roads, interrupting commerce, terrorising the peaceful members of the community into surrendering their own rights by threat of violence.
Sympathy riots in other CA cities. They shut down roads in mission district in SF.
So? No one in their right mind is still running around that literal shit hole
Democrats stole a bunch of American flags from the RNC to help with optics.
Too late. The image of that anarchist standing on a wrecked vehicle and proudly waving the Mexican flag is now imprinted on the American psyche.
“…if they felt such reverence for the country they’d left behind, why were they fighting so hard to stay in the US?”
There’s no contradiction here. They’re both against being sent back to Mexico and waving Mexican flags because they want to make the American SW (incl. southern CA) part of Mexico. Can’t make this happen without Mexican invaders already on the ground, thus they’re opposed to having them deported.
The hits will keep on coming.
Check out “NoKings” and see what is planned for the 14th.
Balkanize the US and make it easier to destroy the system of government
if they keep it non violent ..great
but they are fools and just a cause
I will be attending, simply intending to be a thorn in their side.
I have reached a point in time where I read articles like this and all I want to do is scream at the heavens like that nutjob women we see in videos time and time again screaming just because trump got elected.
The contingency plans for all of this was war gamed By Podesta for the 2020 election but they successfully stole the election and gave Biden (motheaten dirty sock puppet) the presidency. The plans are now in motion to evoke mayhem and lead to Dem victory on the streets of a second “civil war”. All those billions of Biden dollars pushed out after Trump election went somewhere and billions buy a lot of revolution.
I tad bit too late on the “optics,” I’m afraid. The television commercials for ’26 and ’28 have already been created.
At what point will we put the DNC and its affiliates on the “domestic terrorist” list?
They’ve shown their true colors.
There is no such list.
Yeah, you remember it. They put Teddy Kennedy on it. Also Tulsi Gabbard, and (I think) Sharyl Atkisson.
All the American flags still have creases in them, fresh from the package while all the other national flags you can tell are not brand new.
They ought to just hand out windsocks.
That’s what these people are for the DNC.
“Chants of “Peaceful Protest!” ring out as demonstrators on the roof drop fireworks on police. This prompted officers to return fire, striking one of the men in the face with a crowd control munition.”
Hopefully accompanied by police chants of “cleaning my gun!”
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