By Douglas V. Gibbs
This weekend, California Governor Gavin Newsom shut down a major artery of Southern California, Interstate 5 between San Clemente and Oceanside, for several hours during a Marine Corps event at Camp Pendleton. The reason? Live fire exercises. The same kind of exercises the Marines have conducted for decades without incident. The same kind of exercises that never required a freeway closure before.
Gavin Newsom is a hard-left progressive who hates Trump and hates American show of military strength. Knowing that, understand that the whole “shut down the freeway” idea was never about safety. It was about optics. And the optics are ugly.
The Marine Corps had already stated publicly that no highways would be closed. They didn’t request it. They didn’t need it. But Newsom’s office, citing “extreme life safety risk” and “distraction to drivers,” overrode that. Apparently, the sound of Marines doing their job is now considered a public hazard.
This is the same Camp Pendleton that has trained warriors for every major conflict of the last century. Established in 1942 the Marine Corps Base in Southern California has been on the front lines in training U.S. Marines from the Pacific Theater in World War II to Vietnam, and Kuwait to the present. During the last eighty-plus years United States Marines have deployed from Camp Pendleton’s California shores to defend liberty. But on the 250th anniversary of the Corps, the message from Sacramento was: “We don’t trust you.”
Vice President JD Vance, himself a Marine veteran, attended the event. He didn’t comment on the closure because he was busy honoring the men and women who serve. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was there too. But the real fireworks weren’t on Red Beach. They were in Newsom’s press release.
Calling the celebration an “absurd show of force,” Newsom accused President Trump of using the military to “intimidate people” he disagrees with. That’s rich, coming from a governor whose own party has spent years undermining law enforcement, defying federal immigration law, and tolerating violent protests in the name of “social justice.”
Saturday’s event coincided with the second wave of “No Kings” protests, an erroneously named anti-Trump movement that conveniently paints any display of strength as tyranny. So when Marines fire live rounds in a controlled exercise, it’s “chaos.” But when masked agitators block freeways and torch businesses, it’s somehow an American thing to do.
Let’s talk Constitution. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power to call forth the militia to suppress insurrections and execute federal law. Article II gives the President the authority to execute those laws. The National Guard (and our U.S. Military) is not a rogue force. It’s a constitutional tool. And when cities burn, it’s not “intimidation” to restore order. It’s duty.
Newsom’s decision to shut down I-5 wasn’t about protecting drivers. It was about protecting a narrative: that the military (he includes the National Guard in his assessment) is dangerous, untrustworthy, and that it is being politically weaponized by Donald Trump. That’s the story the left needs people to believe if they’re going to sell the idea that Trump is some kind of dictator for using the Guard to constitutionally execute the law.
I truth, the military isn’t the threat. The threat is the erosion of trust in the very institutions that defend us. When governors treat Marines like liabilities, and freeway closures like political statements, we’ve crossed a line.
The Marine Corps didn’t ask for this drama. They asked for respect. And on their 250th birthday, they deserved better.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
