The Portland Moms Are Giving Trump a Headache

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Former FBI Director James Comey writes today that while it might be legal for federal agents to invade Portland, it’s also really stupid. After spelling out exactly how stupid it is, he asks a question:

So it’s dumb and self-defeating on many levels for the feds to engage the way they have in Portland. No sensible law enforcement leader would approach it this way. Which begs a question: Is televised conflict the goal?

What is there to say except “duh”? Of course that’s the goal. This whole thing is purely a campaign contrivance. Trump is trying to run on the idea that our (Democratic) cities are in flames and only a (Republican) president can save them. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough violence to keep that notion alive, so he decided to manufacture some.
Of course, it’s turning out to bite him in the ass thanks to the genuinely brilliant strategy of the “Portland moms.” The video that most people are seeing shows a bunch of scary-looking Trump thugs on the one hand and crowds of middle-class moms singing lullabyes on the other (skip to 1:18 in the video below):

Trump is now threatening to send federal agents into Chicago, but if the folks in Chicago are smart enough to adopt the same strategy, Trump is going to get nothing for his efforts.