As the theory goes, the so-called imperial boomerang always returns. The tactics that imperial powers develop to dominate and control populations abroad inevitably find their way back home, turned against their own citizens. The United States, the most prominent imperial power of this century, is now witnessing this phenomenon as President Donald Trump deployed US Marines to Los Angeles to suppress riots sparked by immigration raids targeting undocumented migrants.

While the use of local riot police and the National Guard to contain unrest is well established, deploying the US military against civilians on domestic soil marks a dangerous new escalation. And escalate it did. Far from restoring order, this show of military force further inflamed public anger, reinforcing the view that Trump was ruling with imperial tyranny rather than the restraint expected of a democratic leader.

The president’s threats to arrest and imprison California’s political leaders and government officials for opposing the military deployment further deepened this sense of authoritarian overreach. Coupled with an uncompromising stance on deportations, the federal government appears increasingly determined to use forceful tactics at home that once belonged to its foreign interventions. The growing use of advanced surveillance technology only sharpens this concern. AI-powered tools from firms such as Palantir — a company aligned with Israeli military operations and implicated in the ongoing atrocities in Gaza — are now being turned inward to hunt undocumented migrants in the US. This is a chilling sign that methods honed in foreign conflicts are becoming part of domestic governance.

Perhaps nothing is more symbolic of this imperial boomerang than the image of Cobra attack helicopters, once a grim fixture of the skies over Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, now flying above the streets of Los Angeles. The lessons of empire, it seems, are returning home — with consequences that should alarm us all.