The president says he is facing an emergency. Using a few stories and weak statistics, he claims unusual powers, daring Congress and the courts to stop him. If he gets away with it, he could go even further.
This week, the “emergency” was a rise in juvenile crime in Washington, D.C. The solution he ordered was 800 National Guard troops sent into the city and the Metropolitan Police Department placed under federal control.
It’s too early to know how this will end. But it likely won’t stop here.
My family lives in D.C., and we chose to raise our kids here. Public safety is not just an idea — it’s personal.
Since taking office again in January, Trump has claimed new powers after exaggerating emergencies about the economy, immigration, and more. In each case, the few facts he gives are not enough to justify the powers he claims.
This matter hits close to home. I’ve lived in D.C. for ten years. My husband runs the local restaurant association and once worked as the city’s first “night mayor” — a link between the mayor’s office and the nightlife businesses.
We own a home in D.C. and decided to raise our family here. Public safety is personal. So let me be clear: D.C. is not the war zone Trump describes. His own Justice Department reports violent crime has dropped to some of the lowest levels in decades.
This may sound familiar. On immigration, Trump turned manageable border issues into a supposed “invasion,” which he used to justify raids and mass detentions. In California, that meant immigration officers using tear gas and flash bangs in Latino communities.
Now that his actions in Los Angeles have slowed down, Trump is focusing on his own backyard.
In a recent interview on “The Weeknight,” MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said Washington is the “perfect laboratory” for Trump’s experiments because Congress and the president have special powers over it. It also happens to be a big city with a large Black population, making it a target.
The history is serious. From the Red Summer of 1919 to unrest after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, federal forces have often been sent into American cities to restore “order,” usually in communities of color.
In the 1980s and 1990s, myths about young Black “superpredators” led to harsh sentencing laws that hurt Black families without making communities safer.
During these times, white political leaders often questioned whether locally elected Black leaders could govern. This is similar to the colonial thinking once used to justify taking over other countries.
Trump didn’t invent this approach. He’s just using it in the age of social media.
Trump claims he wants to make the city safer. But adding uniformed officers doesn’t always make people feel safe — especially when they wear military uniforms. In some areas, they can make people feel less safe.
D.C. might be a target now, but Trump could try this in other big cities. He has already mentioned Baltimore and Chicago, which also have large Black populations.
His plan is the same each time: exaggerate urban “chaos,” question the skills of local Black leaders, and push for federal control that takes power from the city. It’s political theater with a dangerous racial undertone. It undermines not just the city, but the idea that diverse, Democratic-led cities can govern themselves.
If Trump can federalize policing in D.C. on weak reasons, he could do it anywhere — including Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Oakland, California.
If he succeeds, Trump would effectively override local elections, taking powers that voters gave to leaders who oppose him. That is the real public threat — and it is spreading.
