The Useful Idiots in the Media Abetting Trump’s D.C. Takeover
Less than fifteen in the federal control of President Trump of DC by the National Guard and an alphabet soup of federal laws of the law application, the Washingtonians made a verdict without surprise on the last demonstration of the president of authoritarian corruption: they hate it, in large numbers. And they organize against him: a “free DC” movement took root – and took the street – to resist the president’s last takeover.
The response of the political and media elites to this militarized takeover of our capital, however, was rather soft. As The New RepublicMonica Potts reportsDemocrats have apparently been flat by Trump’s maneuver; Insofar as they said anything on this subject, they largely rejected it as a “distraction” made rather than calling it noisily what it is: a fascist occupation – and a worse prelude.
But Trump is also rejected by some in the media: The AtlanticMichael Powell escapes by hand the fact that DC brought the rate of violent crimes to a 30 years old In 2024 to urge Democrats to “minimize crime”. (In this case, “minimize crime“Means” realization statistics show that the crime rate is trendy in the right direction. “) Charles Fain Lehman, also in The Atlantic, Go to similar durations To reject real facts to affirm that “reality is more complicated” and that a “deliberate intervention” – at a crime rate at a rate of 30 years, probably – is justified.
These authors and others make a deep mistake of the jump assuming that Trump sincerely wishes to reduce the crime rate to DC Trump is actually one “Empty, suck the nullity“Who wants to be on television and decided that his second term will concern self-enrichment and revenge. He invents a crime of crime as a pretext to further consolidate his power; This is authoritarianism 101.
Personally, I think that minimizing crime in the national capital is not as irresponsible as minimizing Trump’s authoritarianism. But if we have to claim that Trump’s efforts are sincere, then I would challenge supporters of his militarized deployments to approach their work with more rigor and less vibrations. Trump proposed a thesis: DC crime will descend if the masked paramilitaries flood the city and have fun in the streets. The task is therefore to see if his theory resists the test – to take this seriously.
Trump’s criticisms take this seriously, and they have a thesis of their own appearance by data. The Columbia district had a miserable year in 2023; While crime rates dropped across the country, DCs stood up. The New RepublicGrace Segers has taken a deep look In the phenomenon and reported that the city’s misfortunes came from an nested range of local failures, structural problems and lack of investment. But city officials took care of in 2024 and reversed the trend, making a 35% reduction in violent crimes And the lowest of 30 years aforementioned in the rate of violent crimes. (Trump now claims that the city Lied on these results. As always, the secure port for journalists is to deal with each statement from Trump as a likely lie – unless, for example, you liked to be the type of model who reported that Trump had “disowned the 2025 project”)))))
While the city has succeeded in this feat without Getting Goon’s sections in the streets, Trump’s challenge is to demonstrate in a way that his way of doing things is more effective. Although it is early, I’m not sure that we have a lot of blow for what I suppose will be a lot of dollars to taxpayers. What statistics did the administration have proposed: the White House Tell Axios that “212 people were arrested for various [non–immigration related] Crimes ”between August 8 and August 18, including 101 of services 7 and 8.
It looks good, but there are a lot of things that I don’t know about these figures and no one in Axios took the trouble to make much examine the claim of Trump. Which agency reports these figures? Is it a coordinated data emptying of several agencies? These arrests for adults, juvenile arrests or both? Do these figures include the arrest sets of the Metropolitan Police Department during this period? “212” reflect the number of defendants or the number of arrest costs? Because that’s how the MPD Tabule his own arrest statistics. Speaking, in the same period in 2024, the MPD Make 596 adult arrests.
Crime statistics can be treacherous waters in which Wade; According to my experience The absence of consistency and the eminent picking capacity of those are the fodder for the fear of crimes to beat their drum. In addition, as my colleague Matt Ford pointed out to me, arrest statistics can be unreliable because they more reflect the priorities to apply the law that they are not real criminal activity. But that suggests that there is a ripe avenue for curious journalists: discover the administration what their priorities are. Make them specific affirmations on what they want to achieve, then keep them responsible.
According to all external appearances, the priorities for repression of Trump’s crime seem strange. As The New York Times Reported this week, most of the troops were sent to DC wanderingless “The National Mall, large monuments and other heavy tourist areas”, as well as “metro stations, most of which are also close to tourist and entertainment sites”. These patrols do not go exactly in the middle streets, people.
The great achievement of this deployment seems to be a significant increase in the number of selfies that tourists take troops. The other achievement is public demonstrations of ridicule: my old New Republic Colleague Prem Thakker spent Wednesday morning at Columbia Heights metro station Play a farce While various troops and cops rose, the mechanical staircases up and down, only to end up taking a single alleged price Evader. Those who think Trump is on the right should probably explain how these activities will reach a lower crime rate than city officials were managed themselves.
But it is not so benign. Vaguely identified pseudo-gangs of pseudo-gangs are cheeky people in the street, in a way that The New RepublicS melissa gira grant compares to Violent exploits of proud boys. The occupation forces carry out a Sadistic campaign against the homeless population of the city. And below all this, the city is subject to Mother of all ice raidsWith unidentifiable agents, tearing off food deliveries in the street (a Grubhub driver was struck by a police car while making a delivery on his moped) and breathless local churches, grocery stores and daycares. It is certainly a lot of activities, but those who criticized the city’s own approach in matters of law and order should explain what is achieved.
Supporters of Trump’s intervention should also explain whether what DC needed or not was a quick kick to the local hotel economy. While the Trump administration recently tried to claim that restaurant reservations are “up 30%“Since taking control, it’s a lie. The Washington Post reported This week, “restaurant reservations have dropped in the city 31% from one year on the other for a single day”, since Trump launched his military control, and “business owners are concerned that the rush of the police could have an impact on their income for a vital period of summer”. For all those who hid the Democrats who exercised real facts on DC crime, please enlighten me: is it good? Are they the results we wanted?
You can absolutely mark me as extremely skeptical about Trump’s interventions will reduce crime to DC as always, I am ready to be wrong. We can say so much experts who criticized anyone who dares to use facts to question Trump’s fear of crime?
This article appeared for the first time in Power Mad, a weekly TNR newsletter written by the editor Jason Linkins. Register here.
