On August 11, former President Trump signed an executive order directing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to deploy the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol, ostensibly to combat an “epidemic of crime.” The decision followed the highly publicized assault of DOGE staffer Edward Coristine, aka ‘Big Balls’, by a group of teens during an attempted carjacking near Dupont Circle. The administration seized on the incident as evidence of a broader crime wave, accusing local authorities of failing to maintain order.

However, the real data tells a different story. According to the Department of Justice’s own website, violent crime in D.C. is down 35% since 2023, at the lowest level in over 30 years, and below the rate of some cities in red states (notably St. Louis, MO, New Orleans, LA, and Memphis, TN). Nevertheless, even if an increase in crime existed, policing is a matter for local law enforcement, not for soldiers who are trained to fight and destroy an enemy.

Far from addressing a genuine emergency, Trump’s order is intended to manufacture a crisis to rationalize federal overreach in a liberal, racially diverse city led by a Black mayor. It is a pretext for the authoritarian subjugation of citizens he deems as ‘enemies within’; a blueprint of oppression that the president intends to normalize and impose on other Democrat-led cities.

Trump: This issue directly impacts the functioning of the federal government and is a threat to America. It's a threat to our country. We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore. They're so far gone. We're not going to let it happen. We're not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further. We're starting very strongly with DC and we're going to clean it up real quick, very quickly, as they say.

Timeline

August 3: Edward 'Big Balls' Coristine assaulted.

August 8: The Trump administration reassigned federal agents from the DEA, FBI, ATF, Homeland Security, and U.S. Marshals to patrol tourist areas of D.C.

August 11: Trump signed an executive order directing Secretary of Defense Hegseth to deploy D.C.’s 800 National Guard troops to the Capitol and another federalizing the D.C. Metropolitan Police (MPD).

• The Home Rule Act, passed by Congress in 1973 to give D.C. limited self-governance, allows the president to “direct the Mayor to provide him” the services of the police force “whenever [he] determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for federal purposes.” The authority is limited to no more than 30 days.

August 11: Video of FBI and Secret Service agents patrolling neighborhoods.

August 13: Immigration authorities, including Homeland Security Investigations and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, set up a traffic checkpoint in northwest D.C., pulling people over for seat-belt violations, broken taillights, and other infractions. One person was reportedly arrested for driving without a permit and counterfeit tags.

August 14: D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith issued orders directing the MPD to assist federal immigration enforcement agencies by “sharing information about persons not in MPD custody (e.g., during traffic stops),” and by “providing transportation for federal immigration agency employees and detained subjects.” However, Smith’s order also instructed officers to comply with D.C.'s sanctuary ordinances that prohibit database inquiries “solely for the purpose of inquiring about an individual’s immigration status” and restrict officers from arresting people “solely based on [ICE] warrants or detainers.”

August 14: Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order naming Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner,” granting him the powers of the district’s chief of police. Bondi also claimed to rescind Smith’s orders to MPD officers and suspend D.C.’s sanctuary ordinances.

August 14: MPD beat and arrested a Black man for recording them. MPD union Chair Gregg Pemberton embraced Trump’s takeover of D.C., echoing the president’s lie that “crime is out of control.”

August 14: A citizen filming U.S. Park Police conducting traffic stops in D.C. was threatened by an officer with a baton.

August 14: Federal agents from the FBI and U.S. Secret Service began sweeping areas where unhoused people sleep in D.C. as part of Trump’s initiative to force them into shelters (which were all at capacity) or, if they refuse, into jail cells.

“People can be offered a space in a shelter, but they can’t be forced to take a space, and then fined or arrested if they don’t go into shelter,” [executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Amber] Harding said. “That’s not a law in DC.”

Additionally, when Trump said last week that homeless people would be offered beds and forced into shelters, “there were literally no beds available,” Harding said…“We don’t feel any confidence that federal law enforcement have any training in how to interact with people on the street, or know what resources are available,” Harding said.

August 15: The District of Columbia sued the Trump administration, challenging Bondi’s order claiming control over the MPD. At a court hearing later the same day, D.C.’s attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice reached an agreement that maintains MPD Chief Smith’s control over the police force. However, the federal government still asserts the power to request MPD assistance in immigration matters:

"The statute would have no meaning at all if the president could just say, 'we're taking over your police department,'" [Judge Ana] Reyes said. "The president can't say, 'Mayor, I'm asking for the services of your entire police department. I need them to be at my beck and call.'"

Reyes said while the Trump administration can make specific requests of the MPD to do something, it cannot tell MPD not to do something.

"If the president today called the mayor… and said, 'I need the services of the MPD to help ICE,' I don't think she could say no," Reyes said. "The statute says the mayor shall, not the mayor can."

August 15: A group of ICE agents were caught on security camera tearing down a pro-immigrant banner in Mount Pleasant (NW D.C.). DHS later posted video of the agents taking the banner down, with one masked officer boasting, “We’re taking America back, baby.”

August 16: Federal agents wearing ski masks and unidentified police vests tackled, tased, and arrested a food delivery driver in Northwest D.C. DHS later identified him as a Venezuelan national with a removal order.

• Onlookers demanded to see the agents’ identification, yelling at them that they are “ruining the country.” One of the masked men replied, “Liberals already ruined it.”

August 16: West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) announced he is deploying 300-400 National Guard troops to D.C.; Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said he is deploying 150 National Guard troops to D.C.; South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he is deploying 200 National Guard troops to D.C.

August 18: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) announced he is deploying 200 National Guard troops to D.C. The Louisiana National Guard also announced 135 troops were deployed to D.C.

All told, there are (or soon will be) over 1,700 National Guard troops, hundreds of assorted federal agents, and 3,000 MPD officers patrolling D.C.

The Founding Fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence cautioned against the dangers of such tyrannical oppression, listing among their grievances the presence of standing armies during peacetime, the subordination of civilian authority to military power, and the imposition of unaccountable jurisdictions. Americans would do well to remember.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws…