Trump Trying to Take Back DC Home Rule (Week 31)

A large crowd gathered on Saturday at 2pm, August 16, 2025, for a Refuse Fascism, and Free DC protest at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.

One of the core issues this week within Metropolitan DC is the August 11, 2025, Executive Order by President Trump “Declaring a Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia.” This was accompanied by another order “federalizing” the D.C. Metropolitan Police. This includes sending in thousands of extra police including from the National Guard, Homeland Security, F.B.I., and Secret Service. For instance, just today the North Carolina governor has approved the sending of an additional 400 National Guard to D.C.

This manufacturing of a crisis is creating a situation that concerns local residents because of the history of the District being a special place, the nation’s capital, where people of all races, countries of origin, religions, and ethnicities gather for anything from international diplomacy, to business, conventions, advocacy, and especially the exchange of ideas across the socio-geographic spectrum.

Already this week, a few days after the announcements on Monday, August 11th, there are new rules enacted by the federal police under the authority of the U.S. Attorney General. There are checkpoints set up for all automobiles not only slowing traffic down, but in areas which there are notable nightspots for tourists and people of color, such as 14th and U Street NW. There is a new curfew for youth enabling police to ask for identification, arrest people for smoking marijuana, and detaining anyone who looks as if they are not a U.S. citizen.

The worst part from the perspective of lower-income and working class residents is concerns over racial and income-based profiling. This makes all people of color more vulnerable, particularly from areas which President Trump might categorize as containing “slums” (a term he used during the August 11th morning press conference). The sweep of the city to sanitize it of homeless people or those who appear to be vagrant is especially troubling, but this is in line with the new orders to end “sanctuary cities” and according to the Executive Order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” dated July 24th.

According to one Street Sense Media this reporter interviewed today, the Trump Orders, including the March 28th “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” Action of March 28, 2025, is alarming. This gal related that she has been in and out of hospitals due to her poor health condition, and that this is exacerbated by being homeless, and to such an extent that she counts herself lucky to be able to check into a hotel two days a month. Now she must also wear her tattered work vest 24/7 to ensure that she is not accused of loitering or vagrancy.

In fact by all appearances what is alarming residents is that the Actions of President Trump indicate that he does not even care to have D.C. government bureaucrats involved in his “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.” Trump stated from the August 11th Fact Sheet: “Just like I took care of the Border…I will take care of our cherished Capital, and we will make it, truly, GREAT AGAIN! Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the World. It will soon be that again.”

However arguably the Capital has contained many sources of filth besides just from the bottom quartile of socioeconomic class. This is why there were a sprinkling of posters demanding accountability from Trump: “Show us the Epstein Files!“, “People Over Profit“, and “The Biggest Criminal in America is at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”

Every day is Reality TV Starring President Trump? | AGN photo

This is why people are decrying the takeover of the DC-MPD, because they see and hear the writing on the wall, as even Congresspeople are telling us. According to Ms. Goldman, shouting to the crowd, this is an illegitimate government if it is so inhumane to the homeless, if there is “Taxation Without Representation“, if the city is under “military occupation” with police stationed at “checkpoints” hunting down and kidnapping black and brown, and targeting the activities of hardworking National Mall vendors.

The grassroots rhetoric mirrors what Congressional House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stated on August 13, ahead of the 90th anniversary of Social Security, how bad things are happening, because it is as if the GOP wants to turn the clock back to pre-1965 before the Voting Rights Act, destroy Medicaid, take a chainsaw to Social Security, cancel medical research, shut down hospitals and nursing homes, and deprive veterans and seniors of housing benefits.

“The Democratic Party is actually committed to making life better for everyday Americans. We don’t just talk about it. We are about it. We have a track record that demonstrates it. Social Security. Rural Electrification Act. The G.I. Bill. Medicare. Medicaid. Head Start. The Civil Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act. The Fair Housing Act. The Elementary and Secondary School Act (ESEA). The Higher Education Act. The Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Affordable Care Act. The American Rescue Plan. The Infrastructure and Jobs Act….”

These and other bills that expand the social safety net and allow disabled people to assimilate into society rather than being warehoused in often very constrictive and restrictive institutions is supposed to be viewed as progress, even if today, with so many austerity measures in place, there are less ARC-work programs than ever. If the GOP really cared about the problems in the lives of the working poor, they would be creating more government-sponsored job-corps programs, mental health and social service outreach, and basic community housing projects.

Thousands of protesters crowd the streets from Dupont Circle to Farragut Square, Saturday after Trump federalized DC Police by Executive Order on Monday August 11th

It is this that the Refuse Fascism and Free DC organizations object to, the shredding of the rule of law, and the creation of a kingship, that justifies a “refuse to comply” reaction and perception that “this is the worst clampdown ever seen in the history of D.C.” Under a kingship, there is nothing unusual about dungeons or debtor prisons. There is nothing unusual about institutionalizing people in Victorian-style insane asylums and cancelling whole segments of “deplorable” populations.

The most recent instance of an assault on American tradition is the recent “Letter to the Smithsonian: Internal Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions and Materials” dated August 12, 2025, which declares that under EO 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” the Trump Administration will be leading a “comprehensive internal review of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions.” The goal being to “remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Needless to say, those unwilling to comply will also be targeted for elimination, just as nearly 7,000 workers or more have been laid off from the Social Security Administration. Many questions are raised, similar to DOGE, about allowing unfettered access for those whose interests are not allied with the U.S. government being of the people, by the people, and for the people. For critics this is yet more evidence that Trump wants to “deplete humanity’s store of knowledge,” destroy truth, drown out reason, and subjugate the arts to “fascist cruelty and conformity.”

Especially of concern is that among the listed museums are the African-American Museum, and the Museum of American History. People of Asian descent already know that there are limited exhibition spaces for AAPI heroes, such as “Angry Asian Man” and “Angry Asian Girl” comic strip artists. Will they be taken down for “being too angry”?

From the perspective of Reverend Hagler, a survivor of throat cancer, D.C. is already treated like a colony, being deprived of voting rights, representation in Congress, and “the most awful police state in the country” all under federal control. “Will they take away the last local police for DC, the MPD?” He urges the Left to try to come together as effectively as the Right, set differences aside, and work to build a mass movement before it is too late. Indeed, one of the signs we may be slipping into a kingship—and all hope of DC Statehood—was that on August 8th, President Aliyev of Azerbaijan was invited by President Trump to pick out a free Trump 2028 baseball cap at the White House Gift Shop, even though under current law, the U.S. President can only serve two terms (not three). 

Images and report by AGN, partially reprinted at Patch.com