Source: The Intercept
by Radley Balko
“The Justice Department announced in January that violent crime in D.C. hit a 30-year low in 2024. So far this year, it’s down 26 percent from that. This, in other words, is a curious time for the president to declare that the nation’s capital is a violent cesspool that demands the sort of crime-fighting expertise that only a 79-year-old man who fetishizes dictators and whose entire worldview is perpetually stuck in the 1980s can provide. The motivation for Donald Trump’s plan to ‘federalize’ Washington, D.C., is same as his motivation for sending active-duty troops into Los Angeles … and nearly every other authoritarian overreach of the last six months. He is testing the limits of his power — and, by extension, of our democracy. He’s feeling out what the Supreme Court, Congress, and the public will let him get away with. And so far, he’s been able to do what he pleases.” (08/11/25)
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/11/trump-washington-dc-federalization-national-guard-troops/