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White House Memo
Vice President JD Vance’s trip to a military base in California illustrated rising tensions between the federal government and Democratic leaders.
By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Rachel Parsons
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent, traveled on Air Force Two with Vice President JD Vance to Southern California. Rachel Parsons reported from San Clemente, Calif., just north of a military exercise.
Oct. 19, 2025, 12:59 a.m. ET
Vice President JD Vance watched with pride on Saturday as Marines fired 155-millimeter artillery shells over a major freeway in Southern California, calling the demonstration a “testament to the corps’ strength and unbeatable power.”
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of the state, deemed it an “absurd show of force” and “dangerous.”
Mr. Vance used a speech in front of hundreds of Marines to attack Democrats over the government shutdown, referring to the impasse as the “Schumer shutdown,” a dig at Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader. Throughout the day, protesters filled streets in American cities, including nearby Los Angeles and San Diego, lambasting the Trump administration’s domestic agenda and its consolidation of power.
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What the White House had initially planned as a celebration of the country’s 250th birthday and of the might of the Marines became half of a revealing split-screen: As the likely heir of Mr. Trump’s political movement showcased the power of the military over the objections of a state governor, thousands of people across the country protested a president they accused of using his power like a king.
The overlapping events amounted to a snapshot of the fractured state of American society and of the rising tensions between the federal government and Democratic leaders, who have clashed repeatedly with Mr. Trump in recent months over his use of the military in domestic affairs.
