On MSNBC's Deadline: White House, Angelo Carusone explains how the “theater” of mass deportation plays out in conservative media and stifles dissent
Carusone: “These actions seem to disproportionately be placed in Democratic run places, and that’s not an accident”
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From the June 10, 2025, edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House
ALICIA MENENDEZ (GUEST HOST): Angelo, what are these images meant to convey?
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): And so a lot of this is theater right now, right? And because power perceived is power achieved. And they're intended to convey two things, and they're speaking to a few audiences. They're speaking to their right-wing base, which is to say, "We are following through with the things that we said we were going to do. This is our escalation point."
And this is something that Steve Bannon, who's been on the circuit for the past month, has been out there in right-wing media circles saying, "Hey, calm down everybody. We know those numbers aren't high enough, but we're going to get there as the summer ramps up." They were getting the infrastructure and the plans and the operations in place so that they could begin this massive escalation.
So, as far as that audience is concerned, this is a part of that escalation, and it's to not only say we're doing the thing we said we were going to do, but to also validate a narrative that -- look what happens. "When we try to enforce the law, when we go after criminals, Democrats and all these liberal cities, they react in a way that is hostile, aggressive. They burn cars." Right? That's why these targets matter.
I think the mayor was right when she said there's a little bit of a test case here. California and Texas have about the similar number of undocumented people, and yet somehow these actions seem to disproportionately be placed in Democratic run places, and that's not an accident.
The second though, is to say we can do it. That's the second thing, is fear. Because a big undercurrent of this is -- and this is part of the larger Project 2025 agenda -- you know, is to weaponize the DOJ, to go after media, to eliminate independence of agencies.
But one of the other prongs of it, one of the key components, people forget why Project 2025 wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act. It wasn't to invoke the Insurrection Act for the Insurrection Act's sake. Actually, the intention within the plan is very clear. It says we're going to do this to stifle dissent. And that's what the second thing and the second part about this is demonstrated to do is to stifle dissent one way or the other.
If they don't invoke the Insurrection Act, you get what the reporter was just explaining at the beginning, that local law enforcement feels this sideways pressure to take extra actions even against otherwise lawful and peaceful demonstrations to effectively stifle dissent for no other reason than to prevent a worse thing from happening which is to give these -- Trump and the military and the National Guard -- reason to escalate and intensify.
And then the third is to sort of put a little bit of catnip out there and say, "Hey. Maybe some people will take the bait and they will escalate this." And that's the big thing. They are telling multiple stories as part of this larger narrative to a few different audiences because this is the point in the pivot where things start to really ramp up.