# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/145 "2025-08-13T19:43:20Z")
Maryland governor Wes Moore went on Fox & Friends and spoke out against Trump’s actions with the National Guard. He spoke about how they are making strides dealing with crime in Baltimore (not with the NG) and says: “People don’t want performative they want performance. They’re not looking for someone to walk around with military fatigues and a big gun. They’re looking for people who actually understand how to make people feel safe and how to make people actually safe in their communities. Our National Guards are not trained for this. I’m very specific in my role as Commander In Chief of the Maryland National Guard and we know what they are trained for, and municipal policing is not one of them. So if we want to make people safe let’s actually do the things that make people safe.” [Maryland governor calls out Trump for activating DC’s National Guard | Fox News Video](https://www.foxnews.com/video/6376870325112) (warning: Fox News link. Quote around 8:15) ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/146 "2025-08-13T19:47:27Z")
Right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, who has contributed to Breitbart and The Daily Caller, said there are parts of DC that need to be cleaned out and bulldozed. So, yeah, like the IDF is doing in Gaza as part of the genocide. > **[Benny Johnson on Washington, DC: "Entire neighborhoods, probably, need to be...](https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-washington-dc-entire-neighborhoods-probably-need-be-emptied-need-be)** ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/147 "2025-08-13T19:51:02Z")
A third of eligible voters don’t vote. The next two elections are the soft spots for Republicans to exploit. They are openly proclaiming that Democrats _can’t be allowed power in government again_ (for some of them, it’s probably because they fear prosecution for their acts in power) and those who don’t care enough to vote probably aren’t principled enough to protest the ending of democracy, either. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/148 "2025-08-13T21:33:02Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, who has contributed to Breitbart and The Daily Caller, said there are parts of DC that need to be cleaned out and bulldozed. I hope they start with that dirty diaper and old piss smelling Oval Office. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/149 "2025-08-14T00:13:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I have no idea what their Rules of Engagement are. As of Monday, “[they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want](https://www.rev.com/transcripts/trump-details-crime-crackdown-for-d-c).” In context, you could say the above quote is the RoE for the Metropolitan Police, not the NG. But Trump has talked that way before, and reasonably intends it for both. You could also say that it would be legally dangerous to rely on what Trump said. But if the RoE still forbids police brutality, it’s because the NG and MPD commanders aren’t taking Trump literally. Yet. ---
**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 14, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/150 "2025-08-14T00:34:37Z")
So far the only photos of the soldiers are of them walking around The Mall with no weapons. I guarantee the other federal agencies will be doing the heavy lifting. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/151 "2025-08-14T00:35:18Z")
No weapons? Wait. I thought the whole of D.C. was like Mogadishu?? /s ---
**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 14, 2025, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/152 "2025-08-14T00:37:36Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > No weapons? Wait. I thought the whole of D.C. was like Mogadishu?? > > /s The Mall is like the nice part of Mogadishu. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/153 "2025-08-14T00:52:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The only way out of this mess is political, if not shoving politics leftward at least away from the increasingly dominant far-right to the point that Congress is compelled to avt and take back its authority. Political is indeed the most obvious way out. Congress would surely take back its authority if the Democrats had veto proof majorities. That’s hard to imagine, although it was the case in 1965-1967. If the Democrats had an easier-to-imagine solid majority in both houses, they would pass good bills that would be vetoed, so, yes, we would still be in mess, just less of a mess. To get a solid Democratic majority in Congress, you need centrists candidates like Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and (this next is so centrist as to be a little painful even for me) Jared Golden who can and do actually win in Trumpy districts. Left candidates, or even ordinary Democratic candidates, cannot win in the Trump leaning districts and states without which there is no Democratic congress. Of course, if the NG bars Democrats from entering the Capitol in January 2027, this doesn’t apply. That would be a complete military coup. Then you have to look at non-violent revolution: > **[Why Civil Resistance Works | Columbia University Press](https://cup.columbia.edu/book/why-civil-resistance-works/9780231156837/)** > > For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving t... | CUP P.S. I’m meaning to read the book just linked, but full disclosure is that I have not yet. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/154 "2025-08-14T01:45:13Z")
Black man harassed by federal agent for smoking in his own porch in DC. Could you imagine if Obama had sent the feds into a white city and done this kind of shit? > **['Don’t Be Smoking Outside’: Federal Agent Targets Black Man on His Own Porch...](https://atlantablackstar.com/2025/08/13/federal-agent-targets-black-man-on-his-own-porch-over/)** > > "Federal agent targets Black man on his porch over cigarette that 'smelled like marijuana' in Trump's D.C. takeover. Shocking video unfol... ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/155 "2025-08-14T01:45:35Z")
> [@mjmartin](#): > > Trump just announced that he is federalizing the DC police and deploying the National Guard to D.C., allegedly to “combat crime”, in a city where crime statistics are down both since last year and over the past decade. It’s hard to imagine a more aggressive move to end democracy than sending in troops to occupy D.C. Yes. Trump weaponizes ICE. Masked goons jumping out of unmarked vehicles grabbing people off the streets, out of schools and hospitals, even in court buildings where the people followed the rules and had them cut out from under them. “Oh that’s just immigration security.” Trump sends the national guard to cities to nominally disrupt riots and looting, but really to enhance his campaign of dissenter intimidation and suppression. “They didn’t really do anything, so it was a waste.” Trump federalizes the DC police and deploys the National Guard nominally to eliminate crime but mostly to remove the unsightly homeless and take one more step in normalizing deferral intervention. “DC is technically under federal control and Trump has the authority to deploy the National Guard.” It’s one more step in the fascist march. > [@StringsandHammers](#): > > 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. Well, there’s a difference between the elections being mandated to be nonpartisan and the candidates getting party backing. > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Of course, the real story is that urban Americans tend to vote Democratic. Yes. The urban/ rural divide is what Texas is using to gerrymander the state into noncompetitive districts. > [@mjmartin](#): > > I am impressed that so many still feel like this is business as usual and that the midterm election results will be honored. Agreed. I liked it when we lived in a democracy. Oh well, I’ll still go through the motions. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Is it really doing any damage, though? I will note that I had a conversation with a guy I’m on polite terms with, he mentioned that he voted for a Trump because of the Democrats had won, with the voting rights act they would have made sure the Republicans never win - a bit right wing conspiracy shit. Yet he said the Epstein stuff was troubling and could be Trump’s downfall. So, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/156 "2025-08-14T01:49:55Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Yet he said the Epstein stuff was troubling and could be Trump’s downfall. So, maybe? I’ll believe it when I see people storming the White House insisting on seeing those ‘Epstein Files’. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/157 "2025-08-14T03:10:23Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > The Democrats can run next year on a platform of increasing National Guard salaries. Then it will be in the interest of the NG to defy illegal Trump orders. It’s been tried before and has turned out to be a very bad idea. > **[Donativum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donativum)** > > The donativum (plural donativa) was a gift of money by the Roman emperors to the soldiers of the Roman legions or to the Praetorian Guard. The English translation is donative. > The purpose of the donativa varied. Some were expressions of gratitude for favors received, and others outright bribery for favours expected in return. Donativa were normally rendered at the beginning of each new emperor's reign. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, that form of bribery became a crucial part of any successf... ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/158 "2025-08-14T07:16:42Z")
It’s kind of amazing how the current era is providing so many opportunities to reflect on and directly reference early Roman history. Seems like every other day there’s a comment like “well actually, when the Second Triumverate issued its proscriptions in 43 BC…” **[Nihil sub sole novum](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nihil_sub_sole_novum)** indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/159 "2025-08-14T14:38:38Z")
Let’s go back to Nazis. It’s more resistant (though increasingly less so) to idealization than Roman History (just look at our government buildings.) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/160 "2025-08-14T15:09:17Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > It’s more resistant (though increasingly less so) to idealization than Roman History (just look at our government buildings.) The founders of the USA did seem particularly hung up on believing they were recreating the Roman Republic. Conveniently ignoring what happened to it in the end. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/161 "2025-08-14T17:17:07Z")
7 posts were split to a new topic: [Just saw an article on the NYT about a man who was arrested for assaulting a federal officer in WDC. . .with his Subway sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-an-article-on-the-nyt-about-a-man-who-was-arrested-for-assaulting-a-federal-officer-in-wdc-with-his-subway-sandwich/1022043) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/169 "2025-08-14T17:25:43Z")
This topic was automatically opened after 9 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2025, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/170 "2025-08-14T23:23:24Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Sheldon Whitehouse a battleaxe forged from the heart of a dying star And we’ll make right here in the RISD foundry. Nobody much noticed Sheldon in the good old days, but I’m delighted how he has grown from a tiny state nobody to a powerful voice of reason. If only we had a few hundred more…. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929/171 "2025-08-17T04:34:12Z")
[_Reuters_: “Three Republican-led states to deploy National Guard troops to US capital”](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/three-republican-led-states-deploy-national-guard-troops-us-capital-2025-08-16/) Nothing to see here. Move on, move on… Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-it-right-trump-announces-he-is-federalizing-dc-police-and-more/1021929.md?page=9)