The Left Continues to Tolerate Violence

Rioters set Los Angeles ablaze last weekend after word spread of the Trump administration’s immigration raids. Elected Democrats in California denounced the enforcement campaign, and demonstrators responded by setting cars on fire, looting, and hurling rocks at law enforcement, yielding images reminiscent of summer 2020.

Democrats’ tepid response to the violent unrest signals that they have learned nothing from their defeat in 2024, Rafael Mangual observes. “Such violence should have drawn swift and widespread condemnation from both left and right,” he writes. “Instead, prominent Democrats have largely remained silent on the mayhem, reserving their outrage for President Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to restore order—a move that sparked yet another round of denunciations from the usual suspects.”

In collaboration with the Sun Valley Policy Forum (SVPF), several luminaries from the Manhattan Institute will speak at this year’s SVPF Summer Institute, on July 1st and 2nd. This two-day conference retreat will be held in the premier mountain town of Sun Valley, Idaho. Reihan Salam (Manhattan Institute President), Jesse Arm (Manhattan Institute Executive Director of External Affairs & Chief of Staff), Heather Mac Donald (Thomas W. Smith Fellow and Contributing Editor of City Journal), and Senior Fellows Jason Riley and Abigail Shrier will be featured in the programming, along with other notable thought leaders. As a benefit to City Journal readers, Reserve ticket bundle registrations will be upgraded to the Bronze pass level, which includes access to a private cocktail party. For more information on the program, go here; to register with MI benefits, go here.

Donald Trump and New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani are both from Queens—and you might think that their similarities as politicians end there. Not so, writes Nicole Gelinas.

Mamdani’s promises of free buses, childcare, and rent freezes echo Trump’s own tradeoff-free campaign promises and giveaways, like his no-tax-on-tips pledge. Both candidates offer economic fantasy over fiscal reality.

But as interest rates rise and borrowing costs climb, the age of consequence-free spending may be coming to an end—whether populist politicians are ready for it or not.

The National Park Service is changing the basement museum of the Jefferson Memorial. “It would turn what was an exemplary presentation of Jefferson’s thoughts and actions into a condemning portrayal that would surely leave many visitors wondering why there’s a Jefferson Memorial at all,” writes Jeffrey H. Anderson. Read more about the project here.

New York State’s Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act sets out a list of requirements—such as third-party audits and risk mitigation—to ensure AI technologies are deployed and used in a responsible manner.

The goal is admirable, writes Will Rinehart, but the bill risks prioritizing compliance over actual safety outcomes. Read more about it here.

“Imagine if these folks were this angry over the violence illegals have inflicted on American citizens.”

Photo credits: Mario Tama / Staff / Getty Images News via Getty Images