He is using this as an excuse to see what he can get away with. Since we have a spineless congress, the answer is, unfortunately, “basically anything”

Obviously

At what point would anyone have thought he gave a damn about LA? Are there people out there that think he cares about anything other than himself?

He wants to create enough conflict that he can declare martial law.

And…the sky is blue. Glad we cleared that up.

He watched too much Charles Bronson movies.