With nothing better to do in LA and without a protest to quash, the Trump administration is now using the National Guard to set up a perimeter around a completely peaceful and mostly empty city park, while federal agents on horseback roam around in a clear piece of authoritarian theater.

It could be a harbinger of things to come in San Francisco or any other sanctuary city on Trump's shit list, but another unprecedented action by federal agents happened in Los Angeles on Monday that seems to be part of an ongoing operation. As the Associated Press reports, dozens of federal agents marched through LA's MacArthur Park, some on horseback, guarded by around 90 National Guard troops in armored vehicles, for reasons that are not clear.

The Department of Homeland Security announced no arrests, and observers believe this was just another piece of political theater from the administration, and a show of force meant to intimidate immigrants living in the area.

The New York Times describes the performative nature of the event, done for some chosen film crews following alongside, including, among others, Fox News.

"Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon," said Gregory Bovino, a Customs and Border Protection chief in Southern California, speaking to the Fox News crew. "We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles."

LA Mayor Karen Bass was clearly angry about the latest demonstration by Trump and his cronies. "What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” Bass said at a news conference, per the Times, adding that she had first-hand knowledge of visiting war zones and cities in crisis around the world. "It’s the way a city looks before a coup."

LA City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson added, "If you want to film in L.A., you should apply for a film permit like everybody else. Stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy."

Bass said that after she learned of the federal agents' action, she canceled a planned news conference with Governor Gavin Newsom to discuss the city's recovery, six months after two devastating wildfires in different parts of LA. She demanded to speak to whoever was in charge, and as the Times reports, she was put on the phone with Bovino — who sounds like he's enjoying whatever new power Trump has bestowed on him.

In a Monday post on Xitter, Bovino wrote, "We may well go back to MacArthur Park or other places in and around Los Angeles. Illegal aliens had the opportunity to self deport, now we’ll help things along a bit."

There was reportedly little going on in MacArthur Park Monday besides a children's summer camp and some nonprofit workers providing services to the homeless. Per the AP, Bass said she spoke to one 8-year-old boy at the camp who, unprompted, told her "he was fearful of ICE."

"The world needs to see the troop formation on horses walking through the park, in search of what? In search of what? They're walking through the area where the children play," Bass said, per the AP.

While Newsom and Bass have been expecting the National Guard troops to be called out of the city without having any protests to quell, 4,000 troops are still there, and Trump was clearly emboldened by a Ninth Circuit court decision three weeks ago that blocked a lower court's order to have them immediately removed. That lower court in San Francisco has yet to rule on the legality of the federal troops' presence in the city, and the appeals court may weigh in on that as well.

Previously: Ninth Circuit Sides With Trump Over National Guard, But Battle Continues In District Court Friday