Trump Plan to Deploy National Guard in DC Called 'Giant, Red Trial Balloon'
Brad Reed for Common Dreams
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| Elon Musk protege Edward
"Big Balls" Coristine, 19, was part of the DOGE wrecking crew. He may or not still be a federal employee. But his mugging in Washington spurred Dear Leader to declare a virtual state of martial law in the Capital |
In a post on his Truth Social page on Monday morning, Trump framed the decision to deploy the National Guard as necessary to combat crime in the nation's capital.
UPDATE: At a noontime press conference, Trump confirmed his intention to federalize law enforcement in Washington. Trump claimed there is a "public safety emergency" which is on its face, untrue.
"Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today!"
Trump claimed. "Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will
DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The days of ruthlessly
killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER!"
However, the president's claim that the National Guard is
needed to protect Washington, D.C. residents from purportedly unprecedented
criminal violence does not hold water given that the city has seen a dramatic
fall in crime recently. As noted by CBS
News reporter Scott MacFarlane, violent crime in Washington, D.C. has
fallen by 26% over the last year, highlighted by total homicides declining by
12% year-over-year.
In analyzing the news, some legal analysts were quick to
label Trump's latest move a power grab that was wholly unjustified by the facts
on the ground. (As if actual facts matter to Trump - ed.)
Joyce Vance, the former United States attorney for the
Northern District of Alabama, argued on
her Substack page that Trump's decision to plow ahead with deploying the
National Guard in Washington, D.C. shows he "is going full bore to push
the power of the presidency, even if it means ignoring actual statistics on
crime that contradict his stated justification for acting in the nation's
capital."
Vance added that Trump's actions in this instance also need
to be understood as part of a broad sweep by the president to seize more power
for the executive branch.
"In case you're wondering, just six months into his second term, Trump holds a commanding lead in the number of executive orders issued," she wrote. "These statistics from The American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara show the totals for each president in light blue, so, in the first six months of his second term, Trump has signed 186 orders, compared to a four-year total of 162 for Joe Biden."
Georgetown University law professor Steve Vladeck explained on
his own Substack page that Trump does have some significant powers when it
comes to deploying the D.C. National Guard in the nation's capital, although he
said that the law clearly prevents him from "federalizing" the city
as he has threatened to do in the past.
"The president does have two important authorities when
it comes to 'local' law enforcement in the District of Columbia: He can use the
(small) D.C. National Guard in circumstances in which he probably couldn't use
any other military personnel; and he can require the use of [the Metropolitan
Police Department] 'for federal purposes' for up to 30 days," he wrote.
"That's not nothing, but it also isn't anything close to some kind of
federal takeover of the nation's capital."
To actually do a federal takeover of Washington, D.C.,
Vladeck continued, the president would need to get an act passed through
Congress that would almost certainly be filibustered in the U.S. Senate.
Legal experts weren't the only ones alarmed by the planned
Trump National Guard deployment.
Karen Attiah, a columnist for The Washington Post, warned her Bluesky followers against writing off the
deployment as an effort by the president to distract from his administration's
handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
"Threats of the militarization of cities—including
D.C., which has been fighting for self determination for generations—isn't a
'distraction,'" she said. "It's a massive, giant, red trial balloon
for what an American president can do [in] YOUR city... I need people to wake
up."
Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic candidate for Congress in
Illinois, similarly warned that Trump's National Guard deployment could be a
blueprint for the rest of America.
"Trump's move to mobilize the National Guard against
Americans in D.C. is another telltale sign of his authoritarian
ambitions," she wrote on Bluesky. "But at some point signs of
authoritarianism stop being signs and become symptoms of an autocratic regime.
We're far past that point now."
