Washington DC Taken Over (No, Not By Crime)
Trump seizes DC police, eyes other cities. Plus: Tariffs delayed, drama not. Love faces Supreme Court challenge. And some dinosaur News That Doesn't Suck.
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For the first time in US history, President Trump today seized control of Washington DC's police force based on a crime emergency that doesn't actually exist. He also threatened to deploy the military and target other Democratic cities. DC's mayor was impressively measured in her remarks. She called Trump's move "unsettling and unprecedented," but vowed to work with the attorney general, who is now in charge of DC police. She also used the opportunity to call for DC statehood, saying “access to our democracy is tenuous.”
The move raises immediate concerns about executive overreach and authoritarianism. Some critics see it as following the Project 2025 playbook. Others wonder if Trump is seeking a distraction from the ongoing Epstein revelations that have unsettled his base. He has deployed troops before, but seizing local police control crosses a new line. One has to wonder, if Trump can declare any situation an "emergency" to justify extraordinary powers, are we effectively living under permanent emergency rule?
Trump has a pattern of dramatic announcements followed by limited action — he deployed troops in 2020, then withdrew them. While his actions are unprecedented, they are within existing legal frameworks, however questionable the justification. What matters now is what Congress and the courts do, and how other cities respond if Trump follows through on his threats. Democracy's stress test continues.
Here Are Your Headlines:
Hostile Takeover: President Trump today announced a federal takeover of Washington DC’s police department, deployed roughly 800 National Guard troops to the capital, and reassigned over 100 FBI agents in DC to nighttime patrol duties. On Friday, he ordered federal agents from the US Park Police, DEA, and US Marshals Service into DC. “This is liberation day in D.C.,” Trump said. “Now [police] are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.” DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb slammed the move as “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” and warned local officials are “considering all of our options … to protect the rights and safety of District residents.”
Trump’s Claims v Reality: Trump justified these moves as necessary “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor.” He claimed DC “has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World,” at the mercy of “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs of wild youth.”
Fact Check: According to DC police data, violent crime declined by 35% in 2024 — the lowest it’s been in over 30 years — and continues to fall this year. The FBI’s shows a more modest 9% decline, but that’s still double the national average. Bottom line: DC is statistically safer now than during Trump’s first term.
Impetus: Trump says this decision was inspired by the recent assault of Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old former DOGE employee known as “Big Balls,” by two younger teenagers in what is being described as an attempted carjacking.
What Trump Can Actually Do: Trump cannot simply take control of DC.
Police: Under the 1973 Home Rule Act, Trump can control DC’s police for 48 hours to respond to “special conditions of an emergency nature.” He can extend that to 30 days by notifying Congress, which he did today. Beyond that, he needs Congressional approval. The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, final say over DC policies.
National Guard: Unlike in all other places, DC’s National Guard is always under the president’s direct control.
What It (Could) Mean for the US: Trump threatened similar measures in other cities: Chicago, New York, LA, Oakland, Baltimore. “This will go further,” he warned. His targets are all Democratic cities — but they’re far from the most violent. That honor goes to places in red states, including Memphis, St. Louis (the “murder capital of the United States” for over a decade), and New Orleans. Trump didn’t mention those.
Remember: Trump deployed National Guard troops in DC in 2020, using tear gas and rubber bullets to clear space for his photo-op at St. John’s Church. He also sent federal forces to Kenosha and Portland, where there were reports of agents snatching protestors into unmarked vehicles. (Sound familiar?) Yet when DC faced its most violent recent emergency — January 6th — he didn’t deploy the the National Guard.
First They Came For: Trump yesterday ordered homeless people to “move out,” promising places to stay “FAR from the Capital.” In July he signed an executive order making it easier for authorities to arrest homeless people and redirecting funding away from harm reduction and toward criminalizing homelessness. Since the Supreme Court ruled cities could punish people for sleeping outside even if they have nowhere else to go, over 100 cities have enacted or strengthened camping bans.
Silenced Voices: An Israeli airstrike yesterday killed five journalists in a tent at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City. This is the deadliest single attack against reporters since the war began with Hamas’ assault on October 7, 2023. Among the dead was 28-year-old Anas Al-Sharif, a prominent journalist for the Qatari-funded outlet Al Jazeera who won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the conflict.
Justification: The IDF acknowledged targeting Al-Sharif, calling him a “terrorist … who posed as a journalist.” It accused him of being “the head of a terrorist cell” leading rocket attacks. Last year the IDF released documents it alleged showed Al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera reporters were Hamas and/or Palestinian Jihad. Al-Sharif and Al Jazeera denied this.
However: The Committee to Protect Journalists, which accused the IDF of a “smear campaign” against Al-Sharif, condemned the attack. “Israel wiped out an entire news crew,” it said. “The IDF has made no claims the other journalists were terrorists. That’s murder.”
Context: Israel bars foreign journalists from Gaza. At least 192 journalists have been killed since the start of the war, 184 of them Palestinian. According to an April report from Brown University’s Costs of War project, there is a record of more journalists being killed in the war in Gaza than during the US Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined.
Wider Conflict: Trump today refused to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to take control of Gaza City but told Axios he believes Hamas “can’t stay there” and "are not going to let the hostages out in the current situation." Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff spent the weekend in Ibiza, meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister to discuss plans for an “all or nothing” deal to end the war. Netanyahu yesterday confirmed he plans to occupy Gaza City and displace over one million civilians to “designated safe zones,” despite the objections of military leaders, the Israeli public, and international allies. A new report suggests Netanyahu would back off this plan if Hamas agrees to a ceasefire.
Inflammatory: Netanyahu also told reporters that Israel had never halted all humanitarian aid to Gaza — something it did earlier this year — and said, “If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon.”
Another Pause: Trump today extended a pause on eyewatering tariffs on goods imported from China for another 90 days, once again averting a trade war, for now. “We’ve been dealing very nicely with China,” Trump said.
Getting His Cut: Major chipmakers Nvidia and AMD today agreed to give 15% of revenue from sales to China to the US government. “85% of the revenue is better than zero,” one analyst said. This deal sets an, um, unusual precedent. Shares for both Nvidia and AMD closed lower today.
Directly Involved: Meanwhile, Trump last week publicly called for the resignation of the CEO of Intel, a struggling US-based chip maker. Trump accused Lip-Bu Tan of being “highly CONFLICTED” due to his previous investments in Chinese companies.
What This Means for You: The pause averts, for now, tariffs of 54% on goods from China. But tariffs on over 60 other countries, some almost as high, are in effect. Chicken, ground beef, orange juice, and, yes, eggs, are all more expensive. According to the Yale Budget Lab, Trump’s tariffs could cost the average household $2,400 this year. Apparel could rise 37% and shoes 39%.
What it Means for the GOP: Republican strategists worry increasing prices could hurt the party, which promised to lower costs for Americans. Polls show Americans view the economy as Trump’s — rather than Biden’s — so tariffs could backfire as prices creep up. “That’s why Trump’s beating that Fed rate cut like a dead horse,” one Republican strategist said.
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No Dice: A federal judge today rejected the DOJ’s request to release transcripts of testimony that led to Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction. The judge dismissed the testimony as “garden-variety” information that adds nothing new. He said the DOJ’s request “was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion.”
Lust for Life: Epstein’s former butler, speaking publicly about his former boss for the first time, claimed the convicted sex offender “loved life too much” to commit suicide. He also claimed Trump offered Epstein a job in his first administration, though sources dismissed that as “fanciful.”
Unfair Exchange: Trump warned that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will involve “land-swapping” for “the betterment of both” countries. Putin’s latest proposal, published after White House Envoy Steve Witkoff visited him last week, would leave Russia with Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, roughly 20% of Ukraine’s territory. Ukraine is currently occupying just four square miles of Russia’s territory, or 0.000061%. So it seems Ukraine would not gain any Russian territory; Zelenskyy rejected ceding territory, a position Trump today criticized.
Sorted: Trump said he wants Zelenskyy and Putin “in a room. I’ll be there, or I won’t be there, and I think it’ll get solved.” “In the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump said of Friday’s “feel-out” meeting with Putin. He also said today he’s “going to Russia on Friday,” apparently forgetting that Alaska hasn't been Russian since 1867.
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