Has President Trump aimed his hatred of California and his crusade against dissent at the man in charge of the nation’s second largest school district?
Or, does the FBI and the Trump Justice Dept. really have something on Superintendent Alberto Carvalho?
A lack of information or clear motive surrounds the armed FBI raids on Carvalho’s home and office at LAUSD headquarters. While both Alberto Carvalho and the district have assured utmost cooperation with agents, speculation is impossible to avoid.
This comes after repeated spats between the district and the Trump administration regarding ICE agents. Alberto Carvalho’s personal stance on ICE may have served as the tripwire to set President Trump off.
As a foreign-born Portuguese man who arrived in the United States at 17 years old, later becoming naturalized, his staunch refusal to give ICE credence in LAUSD and repeated rejection of the current administration certainly ruffled government feathers.
This was aggravated as California has served as the heart of the Democratic coalition and as the very nucleus of insubordination against the Trump administration, largely going unfelt except empty taunts between the governor and the President for the past year.
But now, it seems like President Trump’s remarks aren’t so hollow after all, and they spell a much more grim fate for the state of California than previously imagined.
The primary conflict between LAUSD and the Trump administration arose from the continued badgering of ICE agents near and around affiliated schools, presumably seeking to detain immigrant children.
The most prominent example occurred last year when Homeland Security Investigations were turned away from two LAUSD elementary schools after pursuing entry to perform welfare checks on undocumented children. But it was not the only example. ICE bloodhounds don’t relent when turned away from schools, rather, they readjust.
The repeated rejection of ICE has not only garnered LAUSD a hefty amount of ill will in Washington D.C., but it has also been coupled with the internal pressures the district is faced with.
The missteps by the district have been numerous and include a failed deal between a now-bankrupt AI company and LAUSD to develop a student-friendly A.I. chatbot and a superintendent scandal where Carvalho was implicated in an inappropriate relationship with one of his staffers at his previous occupation as superintendent in Miami.
This was spurred on by the budget crisis the district has faced since the start of the Trump administration. Federal budget cuts were a fundamental part of President Trump’s inaugural plan, with many of said budget cuts dedicated for blue states, which include California.
Everything cracks under pressure. Trump’s probe of how easy it would be to break California has passed inspection, and efforts are to be initiated with full force.
The Trump administration is no stranger to using underhanded and unprecedented tactics to serve itself. ICE’s war on America, downplaying the Epstein files scandal and defying the judiciary are all hallmarks of the Trump agenda.
Donald Trump’s fiery spirit got him in office – his portrayal as a Democrat-busting, blunt man won him the White House – but that flame never seems to extinguish.
Party division would be one thing, party loyalty would be another but publicly berating the Supreme Court Justices, the law of the land, and the at–present, seemingly unwarranted attacks on California and LAUSD don’t portray either. It shows ambition – tyrannical ambition – and no one in the President’s corner to hold him back.
Precedent is dangerous in Trump’s America. A president shouldn’t rely on payback to hold a country together.
Sure, Trump’s operations against LAUSD and Carvalho aren’t certain to be a vengeance against “liberal” California. This incident, in isolation, doesn’t spell certain wrongdoing.
So maybe the Trump administration is just investigating legitimate malpractice. Maybe the FBI is just doing their job in keeping a high-profile case against a powerful man under wraps.
But knowing how Trump and his administration operate, revenge can never be off the table, even if it only serves to further sow the seeds of division by squashing defiance.
