These sorts of optics always go south over time...

Amazing! Trump Just Got Democrats to Defend a Criminal, Anarchist Mob

I think Donald Trump has great political instincts, and I also think his political adversaries make stupid, unforced errors because he either brings out the worst in them (see Marco Rubio in the 2016 Vegas debate) or he gets them to show their true colors.

I'm not one of those "Trump plays 4D chess while
 everyone else plays checkers" kind of political observer. 

I believe what we are witnessing transpire this week is a perfect case of the latter phenomenon.

In Seattle, a group of armed anarchists have cordoned off a portion of the downtown area and declared it an "Autonomous Zone." Autonomous from Seattle laws and law enforcement. Autonomous from the State of Washington and autonomous from the jurisdiction of the United States federal government.

Inslee tweeted, "I spoke with @MayorJenny and her team about the situation on Capitol Hill. Although unpermitted, and we should remember we are still in a pandemic, the area is largely peaceful. Peaceful protests are fundamentally American, and I am hopeful there will be a peaceful resolution."

It's clear @realDonaldTrump doesn’t understand what’s happening on five square blocks of our City. Cal Anderson and Capitol Hill has for decades been a place for free speech, community, and self expression.

I think the bigger issue here is the question about what happens when political leaders start to believe that they can determine which crimes that they protect against, and which crimes do they promote? Our constitution and laws allow for all the peaceful protest that you want. However, neither the constitution or any laws allow you to take over other people's private property, declare it your own, and have armed guards securing your perimeter like it's a war-zone.

The idea that what is happening within that perimeter is non-violent, doesn't make it legal and peaceful, anymore than an armed bank robber who happens to  spend his stolen money on "good causes" get's to justify the armed robbery as peaceful and legal. It's the original action of forcibly taking and then occupying city and private property against the will of those who live and do business there. Everyday they stay there, they continue to break the law.

Now there are times when the "masses" rise up to meet the day, but this isn't one of them. This is a bunch of spoiled hipsters, with no real leadership, making dozens of unrealistic demands of the city and state, apparently in exchange for giving up the newly found country of "CHAZ". This is otherwise known as terrorism and extortion. Whatever "good feelings" about this situation will continue to erode as the people who live, own businesses, and work there start to feel the hardship, and as a silly situation with no end in sight starts to grate on the nerves of hundreds of people living en mass, sleeping on the ground or in tents, with a increasingly murky end goal.

Right now the city sanitation department is still helping out, and there is certainly support from the like minded people. But internal squabbles have broken out, settled at the end of baseball bats, and people intervening in physical manners. It doesn't take very many problems (or problem people) to disrupt something like this. These are always fragile situations.  Moreover, if it becomes (like occupy wall street became) some sort of battle of wills, then time is not on their side. After all, it's hard to believe that none of these people have jobs or homes or any responsibilities in the real world.

Moreover, if the "community" decides to simply let their protesters come and go, then it realistically no longer becomes a sit in, an political protest, or a simple expression of a cause. It becomes simply an actual illegal occupation of private and public property, maintained conveniently for people who don't have the goods to maintain their actual political will. There can be no "part time" occupation protest. It's all or nothing.