# So, this is it, right? (Trump Announces He is Federalizing DC Police, and More) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [August 11, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929 "2025-08-11T15:42:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![knavette57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knavette57/32/3871_2.png) [@knavette57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knavette57)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/43 "2025-08-11T22:43:06Z")
Ah, my town St Louis is number two. I do know we had a goodly number of shootings this summer. Trump hasn’t seemed interested in doing anything about it. Plus, we had a destructive tornado make a path of destruction thru the middle of the city. He was a bit slow about helping there, too. I know we are a red state….but, it feels as if he had his one night stand with MO, got what he wanted,(votes) and too bad if we need anything further. Our rural areas is full on MAGA, but plenty of us are fighting hard against them. St Louis and KC and Columbia and Springfield are blue, though. If it wasn’t for these cities, we would not have gotten the Medicaid extension. Even so, they removed the sick leave and minimum wage law. They are working hard to remove the abortion law. Everyone is fighting hard, we are not giving up, and it does seem we can’t….but it doesn’t mean our gov won’t request help from Trump, there are protests all the time in the MO cities, and I am fearful. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/44 "2025-08-11T23:31:16Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > The people doing the actual work will be long time law enforcement. It may even help with investigations that have stalled due to lack of manpower or resources. The actual day to day police work will still by done by the people who have been doing it all along > > Given that FBI agents have been observed handling minor traffic issues, that does not seem to be the case? That doesn’t invalidate what I said. The FBI showing up for a call doesn’t mean they are around the city doing minor traffic work. I doubt they know the first thing about doing an accident report. > [@mjmartin](#): > > Yes, and not just January 6th type action. Any violence against democratic lawmakers in DC will now be responded to and investigated by law enforcement under the direct control of Trump and his hand picked staff. All protests in the city against Trump will be handled by officers and national guard troops under his control. That was always in his power. Most of the important areas in DC are where federal law enforcement has primary or concurrent jurisdiction. The president always has direct control of the DC National Guard. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/45 "2025-08-11T23:47:28Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Most of the important areas in DC are where federal law enforcement has primary or concurrent jurisdiction. Before today, if a congressman’s car tires were slashed in his driveway, I dont believe it would have been a federal officer that would have investigated. Trump would not have had the authority to quash or directly influence the investigation. > [@Loach](#): > > The president always has direct control of the DC National Guard. Sure, but there is a substantial difference between calling up the guard, and directing the guard that are already on the ground to perform a specific action. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/46 "2025-08-12T01:17:03Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > The crime problem got personal for trump when Big Balls was beat up. As the entertainingly snarky maintainers of [electoral-vote.com](http://electoral-vote.com) described it, “He was with his “significant other” at the time of the attack; it’s not known if the incident caused her to deflate.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/47 "2025-08-12T01:19:38Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > Sure, but there is a substantial difference between calling up the guard, and directing the guard that are already on the ground to perform a specific action. About 48 hours. ---
**Author:** ![mjmartin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3d9bf3/32.png) [@mjmartin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmartin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/48 "2025-08-12T01:30:12Z")
48 hours compared to 0 hours seems pretty substantial to me. 48 hours gives lawyers time to get an injunction. 0 hours does not. Maybe that no longer matters. We shall see. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/49 "2025-08-12T01:43:12Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > That was always in his power. Most of the important areas in DC are where federal law enforcement has primary or concurrent jurisdiction. The president always has direct control of the DC National Guard. Except on January 6. If you ask him. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/50 "2025-08-12T01:48:05Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > That was always in his power. Most of the important areas in DC are where federal law enforcement has primary or concurrent jurisdiction. The president always has direct control of the DC National Guard. > > Except on January 6. If you ask him. He was waiting for someone to say pretty please. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/51 "2025-08-12T06:29:30Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > This is why I don’t think the Rubicon is the correct historical comparison. I think this is the setup to the burning of Reichstag. The sort of salami tactics [described by Stranger on a Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/24) remind me more of the USSR’s post-WW2 step-by-step takeover of what became their satellite states. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/52 "2025-08-12T09:08:45Z")
I believe that a re-worked form of Hanlon’s razor applies to many if not most things Trump does. > _**Never attribute [Trump’s actions] to 3D chess that which is adequately explained by petty gripe or whim**_. I don’t doubt that this sort of stunt may ultimately cause the Overton window to be moved towards acceptance of conduct that may assist Trump in any eventual coup. Hitler set out to obtain absolute control of Germany. Contrastingly, if Trump ends up dictator, the definitive history book about his rise will be called “Trump - The Happenstance Dictator”. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/53 "2025-08-12T10:13:21Z")
I don’t think you’re making a good argument. It’s almost as if you’re trying to imply those cities are “red” themselves. There are many examples of dangerous cities in red states. In fact, 8 of the top 10 dangerous cities are in red states. The one thing all 10 have in common is that their mayor is not a republican. Do you think the crime rate in Memphis and St. Louis has more to do with the current Governor than their decades of Democrat mayors? St Louis has had a democrat mayor for almost 80 years. Memphis has had a Democrat mayor for the majority of the last century–and all of this one. My point is that if federal resources will be deployed to a dangerous city, the chances are that it will have a democrat for a mayor. 27 of the top 30 cities with the highest murder rates had Democrat mayors in 2022. In 2019, the 50 cities with the highest rate of property crime had Democrat mayors. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/54 "2025-08-12T10:30:10Z")
I’ll break my rule about not responding to people who say “Democrat mayor” instead of “Democratic mayor”. You should really learn the right way to refer to people in that party. I wasn’t making an argument, I was pointing out the fact that Trump never talks about cities in red states as hellholes even though they have higher crime rates than the cities he mentions – NY, Chicago, LA, DC. ---
**Author:** ![StringsandHammers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stringsandhammers/32/17933_2.png) [@StringsandHammers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StringsandHammers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/55 "2025-08-12T10:37:16Z")
I think it’s ridiculous to categorize any city as a Dem or Republican based solely on who is the mayor. A lot of people don’t vote straight ticket. They may vote for a Dem mayor, an independant congressman, and a Republican president. Big cities are often represented by multiple Congressmen, some maybe Dem while the others are Rep… Also many mayors of big cities have no political affiliation. There are no political party primaries, it’s basically people reading into their beliefs of what political party they suspect they belong to. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/56 "2025-08-12T10:37:53Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I’ll break my rule about not responding to people who say “Democrat mayor” instead of “Democratic mayor”. You should really learn the right way to refer to people in that party. Thank you. I actually went back and changed “democratic” to “democrat” because the former didn’t seem right. My thinking was that all mayors are democratic. If “democratic” is the proper adjective, I have no issue with that. I wasn’t trying to be offensive–it just didn’t look right to me after I typed it. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/57 "2025-08-12T10:41:04Z")
Glad to help. NYC has had Republican and Democratic mayors, but it’s still the main city that Trump dumps on. I love the idea of some Democratic politician calling small Republican backwaters shitholes and hellscapes. Can you imagine the backlash? Lots of small towns have higher crime rates and have Republican mayors. Somehow, it’s OK to dump on large cities, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/58 "2025-08-12T10:44:07Z")
> [@StringsandHammers](#): > > I think it’s ridiculous to categorize any city as a Dem or Republican based solely on who is the mayor. But the topic for debate is whether it’s a coincidence the President is sending federal resources into cities with democratic mayors. If the party affiliation of the city is not relevant, then it’s just coincidence. If the party affiliation of the city’s mayor is relevant, then one must look at the party affiliation of all the most dangerous cities. If we do that, then it also appears that more often than not, a city being “assisted” by federal agents or National Guard due to safety will have a democratic mayor. So, coincidence can’t be ruled out. ---
**Author:** ![StringsandHammers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stringsandhammers/32/17933_2.png) [@StringsandHammers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StringsandHammers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/59 "2025-08-12T10:50:41Z")
You are making this way more complicated than it has to be. I agree it is not a coincidence that Trump is sending troops into DC. He’s doing it to distract from the fact that he likes to rape little girls and he has painted himself into a corner promising to unseal the Epstein files and now he needs a distraction. DC is the only place he can really do it so his options are limited so here we are. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/60 "2025-08-12T11:01:47Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > Thank you. I actually went back and changed “democratic” to “democrat” because the former didn’t seem right. My thinking was that all mayors are democratic. If “democratic” is the proper adjective, I have no issue with that. I wasn’t trying to be offensive–it just didn’t look right to me after I typed it. And that’s one reason it’s important to get it right - the Republicans have done such a good job using the wrong name that the right one now seems wrong, even to people with no malice. > [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > If we do that, then it also appears that more often than not, a city being “assisted” by federal agents or National Guard due to safety will have a democratic mayor. So, coincidence can’t be ruled out. I see your point, but with this administration politcal bias can’t be ruled out, either. Another thing that can’t be ruled out is an attempt to distract from other things, like the Epstein scandal ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/61 "2025-08-12T11:04:48Z")
I agree that it is another distraction. Paving over the White House’s rose garden is a distraction, building flagpoles on the White House lawn is a distraction, meeting Putin in Alaska is a distraction, maybe/maybe not tariffs (TACO) is a distraction. Americans, hold his feet to the fire on the Epstein files. Don’t let him distract from them. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/62 "2025-08-12T11:10:38Z")
The difference is the capital letter - Democratic for members of the political party, democratic for the system of government. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929.md?page=4)