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OP|ED - When Donald Trump sees an opening to posture, he takes it. His deployment of thousands of troops to Los Angeles wasn’t about fixing our streets or solving crime—it was about grandstanding. And it worked: uniforms on corners, headlines on TV, and a bill sent straight to taxpayers.
But here’s the part no one wants to admit: California’s own civic leaders handed him that opening. By letting crime, decay, and disorder pile up for years, they gave Trump the stage to make a fool of Angelenos—at everyone’s expense.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s office later revealed that just “feeding” 4,900 troops cost $71 million, out of a staggering $118–$134 million spent over two months. Do the math: $14,000 per soldier, or $240 per day.
For context, the U.S. military’s daily food allowance is roughly $15. “Food” here clearly meant more than meals—logistics, supplies, and more—but the number is still outrageous.
And what did Angelenos receive for it? A brief show of force. Then nothing changed.
What We Could Have Had Instead
For the same $134 million, Los Angeles could have delivered lasting improvements Angelenos would notice every day:
- Streetlights. At roughly $1,200 per retrofit, we could have fixed or upgraded 110,000 lights—enough to replace every broken streetlight twice. Anyone who’s walked home at night knows the gamble: shadows from overgrown trees, sidewalks buckled into trip zones, and sometimes the awful moment when you step in pet or human waste in your new shoes or boots on the way to dinner. That’s what civic neglect feels like.
And this isn’t abstract. The Bureau of Street Lighting itself admits repairs can take six months or longer. I know firsthand: when the lights on my own block went out, I filed a 311 complaint. The official response? Expect a minimum of six months before anyone would even address it. In the meantime, the street is pitch black, the sidewalks are cracked and overgrown, and residents are left navigating hazards that increase liability and invite crime. The Los Angeles Times has reported the same pattern citywide: sidewalk fixes often take more than a decade, and nearly half of LA’s streets need resurfacing. - Road repairs. At about $400,000 per mile, the city could have paved 330 miles of roadway. Some neighborhoods feel more like off-roading than commuting. For a state with the world’s fourth-largest economy, our roads shouldn’t feel like combat zones.
- Street cleaning. At $35 million per year, L.A. could have funded four years of citywide cleanup, including targeted removal of trash around homeless encampments, where carts, debris, and stolen goods pile up daily. Instead, small businesses sweep their own storefronts just to keep a shred of dignity.
- Trees and sidewalks. At $350 per tree trim, the city could have cleared its 40,000-tree backlog ten times over. Uprooted sidewalks are hazards in daylight; in poor lighting, they’re dangerous.
Instead, taxpayers bought two months of uniforms and optics.
I Support Police Presence—But This Was Waste
I’m not anti-police. Something has to change. LA— can’t thrive if small businesses feel powerless against theft, vandalism, and disorder— if policing agencies feel unsupported underfunded— Angelina’s deserve a higher quality of life than our elected officials are supporting. Enforcing existing laws, reducing recidivism, and restoring civic order are the basics.
But $134 million for two months of temporary troops wasn’t reform. It was theater.
Inaction Here, Overreaction There
Los Angeles didn’t ask for Trump’s troops—but the city’s decades of inaction created the opening. By letting infrastructure rot, leaders invited federal overreach. Trump jumped at the chance, and we got billed.
And let’s be honest: if his opponent had staged the same deployment, the outrage would be deafening. Waste is waste. I say that as a centrist—part conservative, part Democrat.
My Perspective
I’m a veteran who has seen what real conflict looks like, and a longtime Angeleno who remembers what neighborhoods used to feel like. I believe in the Broken Windows Theory—the criminology principle that visible signs of disorder, when left unaddressed, invite more disorder. When small problems like broken streetlights, cracked sidewalks, and trash are ignored, they snowball into larger failures that tear a city apart.
Angelenos shouldn’t accept decay as normal. If L.A. can draw the world with beauty, creativity, and culture, it can summon the civic pride to demand better.
And yes, I just turned 40. Old enough to know better, young enough not to excuse failure.
The Bottom Line
For $134 million, Los Angeles could have lit its streets, paved its roads, cleaned its neighborhoods, and repaired its sidewalks. We could have lifted burdens from small businesses and restored pride.
Instead, local inaction invited Washington’s overreaction—and $134 million later, Angelenos are left with the same broken sidewalks, the same dark corners, the same piles of trash. What we didn’t get was progress. What we got was a very expensive photo op.
(Paul Leonard is a U.S. military veteran, former Apple executive and former Shell executive in its green energy division, and a professor with George Washington University. Educated at UCLA and Georgetown, he has been a business owner throughout Los Angeles for more than 20 years and has published scholarly articles and op-eds on civic issues. He has also been featured in major news outlets and served as the ambassador for the National Veterans Center in Washington, D.C.)
