And your point?

I guess I thought my point was clear in my first sentence. "This isn’t a propaganda win."

Of course they needed a pretext and this turned out to fit the bill.

They don't need a pretext either. They've already enacted draconian policies against monitory groups based upon race and against LGBTQ folks. They needed no rational pretext for those. They didn't need one for any other horrible things they're going to do in the future. They would do those things anyway.