"Some of DOGE was badly injured last night," Trump announced and released a photograph of a bloody, half-naked young man sitting on the sidewalk. It was Edward Coristine, more widely known as large Balls, a nineteen-year-old protégé of Elona Muska and 1 of DOGE's first employees.
Coristine testified that he had spotted 2 thugs trying to bargain a young woman's car and rushed to aid her, and then himself was attacked and beaten. "Our capital was overrun by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, swarming bands of chaotic youth, drug addicts and homeless," said Trump. "Or they will improve, or we will federalize," the president concluded.
The Washington Central Police Service is the Metropolitan Police Department, subordinate to the Washington Mayor. Federalization means that the president is taking control of Washington police.
A fewer days later, national officers from the FBI, DEA (Agency for the Fight against Drugs), ATF (Office for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) and ICE (Custom-Immigration Office) were deployed to patrol Washington Streets.
Trump then issued a regulation in which he declared a state of public safety threat and federalization of the MPD, passing control of the police lawyer General Pam Bondi. He besides sent 800 National defender soldiers to Washington. Uniforms began to remove homeless encampments and set up respective driver control points. This sparked protests by residents, complaining of both the introduction of an atmosphere of panic in the city and the senselessness of sending agents to safe neighborhoods of the city solely due to the fact that they are more visible in the media.
The lawyer General of the territory of Colombia filed a suit to block Trump's actions, calling them “unprecedented, unnecessary and illegal”. Consequently, under force from the national judge, the Trump administration gave way somewhat – police chief Pamela Smith remained in her position and national officers are to limit themselves to helping immigration services.
In the case of Washington, Trump has a somewhat easier task, due to the fact that the territory of Colombia, in which the capital of the United States lies, does not have the same autonomy as the individual states. Since 1973, it has had local government, and residents elect mayor and city council, while the president has respective unique powers that he does not have in the states. Among another things, through the Secretary of Defense, he controls the Washington National Guard.
State National defender units are subject to state governors. These may ask the president to intervene erstwhile a hard crisis, specified as a natural disaster or a riot, erupts in their condition. The last time this happened was in 1992 in Los Angeles. After the court acquitted 4 white police officers in a trial for the brutal beating of Rodney King's black driver, riots broke out in the city. At the request of the California governor, incumbent president George Bush elder sent troops to the state, although riots have already been mostly suppressed by state troops of the National Guard.
The president can besides take action without the governor's approval if rebellion or force prevents national law enforcement. This occurred, for example, in 1957 in Arkansas, erstwhile the state politician opposed the abolition of racial segregation. president Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National defender and ordered enforcement. The event was immortalized on famous photos depicting 9 black students escorted by the National defender to a advanced school building in small stone City. 5 years later, a akin situation occurred in the state of Mississippi erstwhile president Kennedy federalized the State defender to let the admission of a black student James Meredith University.
Intervention allows president Insurrection Act, that is, the "Rebellion Act". Indeed, it allows the military to be utilized and to take control of the National defender units in order to suppress rebellion or major riots, but it has been called upon highly rarely. The autonomy of states is protected by another groundbreaking bill, known as Posse Comitatus.
After the civilian War, national troops stationed in the south of the States to defend the recently acquired civilian and electoral rights of black citizens. This sparked the constant, deep opposition of the white confederate residents who attempted to reconstruct the old order through violence, intimidation, and racist law. As part of the 1877 compromise that settled the dispute over the presidential election, the Republicans agreed to retreat national troops from the South in exchange for the support of the Democrats for their candidate Rutherford B. Hayes. A year later, legislature cemented this compromise by passing the Posse Comitatus Act. According to it, the United States Army and Air Force cannot be utilized to enforce civilian law, for example to execute police functions. The exception to this law is the Insurance Act, which the president can trust on in case of a massive escalation of force or an outbreak of rebellion.
Infringement of this bill is charging Trump with the state of California. In June, despite clear opposition from state politician Gavin Newsom, Trump federalized the California National defender and sent Marine troops to Los Angeles to effort to suppress protests against violent and illegal immigrant captures. Protests were limited to respective streets of the city and posed no challenge to local police, and Marines had nothing to do there.
By the way, Trump did not feel the request to call the National defender during An assault on the CapitolWhen an armed mob entered a government building, attempting to violently nullify the election result, chanting slogans about hanging the vice president and attacking police officers.
The demonstrations in Washington and Los Angeles are a demonstration of force and the creation of a precedent that will let Trump to send the defender or the Army to American streets whenever he has specified a whim.
According to data released in January on crime in Washington, the number of violent crimes in 2024 decreased by 35% compared to the erstwhile year and was the lowest in over 3 decades. Trump stated that the Washington mayor had surely falsified the data and promised to bring in others to justify the military intervention. Sounds like a joke? Let us remind that in early August 2025 Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labour statistic due to the fact that he did not like the data on rising unemployment.
According to the Axios news service, Washington's militarization plan was created in haste after Trump watched in Fox News a material about the raging crime epidemic in the capital. It's common cognition that Fox News manipulated crime material to distract viewers from The pedophile scandal with Epstein's listWhich seems to be truly putting Trump off balance. So the game, which for Trump's sake was to turn voters the another way, diverted Trump's attention, who – unstopped by anyone – decided to take over the capital of the country.
Strange are the times in which the authoritarian state step by step grows out of the media games and Facebooks that the president of the United States simultaneously creates and falls for itself.
