Good morning. The White House called up the National Guard to help quell protests in Southern California. Plus, we have a Q&A about the pressures of parental summertime planning — and the latest on the Trump-Musk fight and the French Open. Immigration clash
President Trump ordered at least 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles County. For two days, hundreds of demonstrators have faced off with immigration agents in riot gear. More protests are expected today, and a Trump official said that troops would arrive in L.A. within 24 hours. Here’s what we know: Protests: Some of the most active demonstrations took place in Compton and in Paramount, a majority Hispanic area about 25 miles southeast of the Hollywood sign. Agents used flash-bang grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets on crowds of protesters. Some demonstrators threw fireworks and rocks at police officers. The L.A.P.D. detained a number of protesters but also said that demonstrations in the city of L.A. were peaceful. Deployment: Trump’s order is the first time that a president has activated a state’s National Guard without a request from that state’s governor since 1965, an expert said. Then, Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators. Trump said he considered efforts to block ICE agents a “form of rebellion.” Context: Protests broke out on Friday as federal agents rolled through L.A.’s garment district in search of undocumented migrant workers. The raids signaled a new phase of Trump’s immigration crackdown focused on workplaces, Lydia DePillis and Ernesto Londoño wrote. Response: California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, described Trump’s order as “purposefully inflammatory,” saying that federal officials “want a spectacle.” Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, said the presence of the troops would “not be helpful.” Camp out
The trope of the overscheduled child doesn’t go away just because the school year ends. Type A parents, panicked about falling behind, increasingly use summer camp to build our kids’ skills and pad their résumés. We stress about the best offerings and rush to reserve spots as soon as admissions open up. I registered my middle child for his Pennsylvania sleepaway camp all the way back in August. Yes, I recognize that’s absurd. Some parents, though, are exhausted by the rat race, exasperated by the cost and desperate to give their kids a bit of unstructured time. Maybe 9-year-olds don’t need to be entertained around the clock! These families are opting their children out of summer plans altogether. Hannah Seligson, a freelance reporter, profiled them for a story The Times published today. I spoke to her about what she found. Are we more reliant on camps than we used to be? Yes. “Demand is at record levels,” Steve Baskin, the head of the American Camp Association, told me. Why? Baskin points to a surge after Covid and lockdowns, when parents wanted to get their kids off screens and make up for prolonged periods of social isolation. But larger trends are at play, too. One researcher, Katherine Goldstein, mentioned three: “There is no country other than the United States that has such a long summer, a high supervision culture for children, and not a lot of publicly funded options.” Can you explain the argument of the refuseniks you write about? First, they say camp is too expensive. Then it sometimes requires perfect timing to get in — and a zillion forms. Some parents also say they want their kids to experience boredom, which is not only free but can also teach valuable life skills. So what are these people doing? So many things and also nothing! Like, zero plans? Literally. There are camp refuseniks who are fine with their kids watching a bit more TV because their school year calendar is so packed — or, in the parlance of modern parenting, “optimized.” Everyone needs a break, right? Others are using the time and money they save to travel. Partly this is a response to insane price tags — and not just in Manhattan. What are some of the egregious ones you heard about? Some of the toniest sleepaway camps ask $17,000 for seven weeks. But often tuition doesn’t even include all the costs. Hali Berman, who runs a site that resells camp items, told me some people spend up to $3,000 on sheets and towels for sleepaway camp. Obviously that’s an extreme example. Plenty of parents, I assume, can’t opt out. Don’t working people need someone to supervise the kids? Yes, “summer break” is a bit of a cruel joke, or misnomer, for parents who don’t have a ton of flexibility. One mom had to remind her 8-year-old boys that it’s illegal for her to leave them home alone. So summer often brings a scramble to find child care. But babysitting, especially for more than one child, can be much cheaper than a summer full of camps. Do you have kids? What are they doing? Last summer, my daughter, now 7, attended seven different day camps in Manhattan. (We showed up at the wrong camp only once.) This year, she’s going to sleepaway camp in Canada. My 5-year-old has no plans. I didn’t want to feel pressure to send him every day just because I’d paid a fortune to do so. What did you do for camp as a kid? I went to sleepaway camp for many years but stopped to do something résumé-padding: academic and volunteer programs. Ha, that’s the spirit!
Trump and Musk
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Who lost the most from the Trump-Musk feud? Musk. Polling shows that Republicans side with Trump over the billionaire by almost 12 to one. “Musk already lost his war,” The Washington Post’s Philip Bump writes. Republicans. Trump and the Republicans believed they could control Musk, and thus his money. “The deal Republicans made with the rocket-building devil is coming back to haunt them,” USA Today’s Rex Huppke writes.
The Trump administration’s war on the government is meant to save democracy from a ruling class of unaccountable bureaucrats, Nathan Levine argues. To distinguish themselves from corruption under Trump, Democrats should reduce the influence of wealthy donors and special interests in their party, Ben Rhodes writes. Here are columns by Ross Douthat and Maureen Dowd on Trump and Musk. Subscribe Today The Morning highlights a small portion of the journalism that The New York Times offers. To access all of it, become a subscriber with this introductory offer.
Predictions: The Tony Awards ceremony is tonight. Here’s who The Times’s theater reporter Michael Paulson expects to win. Travel: Art, jazz and East African food are among the highlights of 36 hours in Detroit. Vows: First came Forbes’s “30 Under 30.” Then came love. Your pick: The most clicked article in The Morning yesterday was about the risks of proactive peeing. Trending: A Colombian senator, Miguel Uribe, was shot at a campaign event in Bogotá. The attack recalled the political violence of past decades. Lives Lived: Bill Atkinson was a designer for Apple who created the software that made it possible to display shapes, images and text on the screen and present a simulated “desktop.” Atkinson died at 74.
“Mother Emanuel,” by Kevin Sack: In this devastating, meticulously researched account — our reviewer called it “a masterpiece” — Sack, a former reporter for The New York Times, examines the hate crime at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., on June 17, 2015, in which nine congregants were murdered by a white supremacist during Bible study. The book covers the massacre, but dwells in the lead-up, with a focus on the history of the Methodist church in the South. Sack also considers the role of forgiveness — in the aftermath of the tragedy, in the government’s response to it and, most important, in the families of victims and survivors, some of whom struggle to muster compassion for a killer who showed no remorse. More on books
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