Yes you are!
That explains it.
At least you venture outside of the soap bubble of the Bay Area, I give you credit for that.
It's amazing after 4 years that people still don't know how Trump operates. Where are our Russian overlords? Where are the Right Wing Death Squads? Where are thousands of Klan marching in the streets?
Oh yeah, none of that predicted stuff happened, and neither will your conspiracy theory.
Look at it this way: I bet your Bay Area friends are the types that criticize Trump for saying "Xi is a friend, a good friend", and your Bay Area friends get all bent out of shape about it, even while Trump withdraws from the WHO, closes the Hong Kong loophole, and lays 30% tariffs on China.
Your Bay Area friends are like that, aren't they. Yes, yes they are.
Bully Pulpit
The US President's most immediate Power is the Bully Pulpit. Trump uses it often. He bullies Europe, he bullies Democrats, he bullies US Corporations during COVID with threats of War Production Act, and he bullies as much as he can before acting.
Remember when your Bay Area friends were criticizing Trump for not using the WPA during March? I do.
The Bully Pulpit is not just about 'bullying', it's using the amplified voice of the President to get shit done. Trump gets shit done.
So Trump is signalling to the Law & Order part of the population that looks at the Riots as what they are: Opportunistic smash & grabs, and places for affluent young white people to signal that they are woke, and places for Blacks to be racist, and he tells his Constituency that it isn't ok.
But no, the whole thing is overblown, just like every other Trump thing is overblown.