Washington DC

Subterms

    Latest story

    100 Shares69 Views

    US authorities remove Trump-Epstein statue from National Mall

    by

    An impromptu statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands was unceremoniously removed from the National Mall in Washington just a day after a group of anonymous artists erected it there.The piece showed the president and the late convicted sex offender, who were friends in the past, looking joyful together, with wide grins and feet kicked back.A plaque stated that it was built in honor of friendship month. “We celebrate the long-lasting bond between President Donald J Trump and his ‘closest friend’ Jeffrey Epstein,” the accompanying text stated.The Secret Handshake, the group that created the art, had obtained a permit that allowed it to keep the statue displayed in the capital until 8pm on Sunday.But the National Park Service, the federal agency that oversees the area, removed the statue because “it was not compliant with the permit issued”, Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for Department of the Interior, said to CNN.Trump, who usually is adept at shaking free of any scandal, has not been able to temper the widespread curiosity and also anger from some on the right over the administration not disclosing the so-called Epstein files – all the material the authorities have on the business dealings, crimes and investigations into same regarding the New York financier, who killed himself in jail while awaiting federal trial in 2019 on sex-trafficking offenses. His accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a long prison sentence.A Secret Handshake artist who identified himself as Patrick but would not provide his full name to the Guardian said in a telephone interview that the group built the Trump-Epstein statue to “honor the one and only true friend Donald Trump seems to have in his life”.In 2002, Trump told New York magazine that Epstein was a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with” but has repeatedly said in recent times that the two fell out long ago. The White House has called Epstein “a creep”.Epstein had also told the journalist Michael Wolff that he was Trump’s “closest friend for 10 years”.Trump recently said he was “not a fan” of Epstein and that he stopped talking to him because Epstein “stole people that worked for me”.Patrick said he was confused by the authorities’ decision to remove the statue.“The Trump administration has mostly been all about rebuilding statues that have already been torn down, of Confederate generals and other racist tropes and figures from the past” he said. “I would argue that Trump is a racist figure from the past, so why would you tear that down?”In a statement to the New York Times, the White House said: “Democrats, the media and the organization that’s wasting their money on this statue knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents.” More

    More stories

    • 200 Shares133 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump threatens to call national emergency in Washington DC over Ice cooperation – US politics live

      by

      Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking illegal suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.The US president took charge of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on 11 August for 30 days, activating the National Guard and deploying federal officers in what he framed as a crackdown on crime and homelessness but what was widely seen as another example of federal overreach.It is true that Washington DC has struggled with the scourge of gun violence, but its violent crime rate is at a 30-year low, much lower than that of cities in many red states.Trump’s 30-day emergency declaration has expired but over 2,000 national guard troops are patrolling the district – reportedly including several hundred sent from Republican-run states. It is unclear when their mission will end.Bowser issued an executive order at the beginning of the month requiring ongoing coordination between local law enforcement and various federal partners, though Ice was notably excluded.Trump blamed “Radical Left Democrats” for pressuring Bowser to inform the government about the non-cooperation with Ice, adding that if the police halted cooperation with Ice, “Crime would come roaring back.”He said: “To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”We will have more on this and other US politics stories throughout the day so stick with us.In mid-June, Donald Trump extended a deadline for TikTok to find a (non-Chinese) buyer or face a ban in the US. That extension is due to expire on Wednesday.The US is “very close” to a deal with China to settle their dispute over TikTok, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said earlier today.“On the TikTok deal itself, we’re very close to resolving the issue,” he told reporters as he arrived at Spain’s foreign ministry for the second day of talks with Chinese officials.Congress has approved a US ban on the popular video-sharing platform unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold its controlling stake.After initially calling for TikTok to be banned during his first term, Trump has so far extended the deadline three times during his second term.A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or a ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.But the Republican president, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media and who has said he is fond of TikTok, put the ban on pause.China and the US – the world’s two biggest economies – have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal tariffs, staving off an all-out trade war.Donald Trump said on Friday he’ll send the National Guard to address crime concerns in Memphis, Tennessee, his latest test of the limits of presidential power by using military force in American cities.Speaking on Fox News, Trump said “the mayor is happy” and “the governor is happy” about the pending deployment. Calling the city “deeply troubled,” he said “we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.”Paul Young, the Democratic Memphis mayor, had signaled the intervention was coming. “Earlier this week I was informed that the government and the president were considering deploying the national guard,” he said on Thursday, while requesting “financial resources for intervention and prevention” rather than military deployment.“I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Young, who ran for office on a tough-on-crime platform, told a news conference the following day.The Guardian US’ democracy editor, Kira Lerner, has explored the ways in which Trump’s Washington takeover led to the indiscriminate detention of immigrants, the rise of racial profiling and the arrests of large numbers of people for low-level crimes. Here is an extract from her story, published on 10 September 2025, the day Trump’s direct control of Washington DC’s police force ended:
      A White House official said on Monday that 2,120 people have been arrested since the start of Trump’s takeover, 20 known gang members had been arrested and 214 firearms had been seized. Although violent crime has decreased during this period, Washington residents say the impact has not been worth the overbearing law enforcement presence.
      Federal agents with numerous agencies, including Immigrations and customs enforcement (Ice), Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Park Service, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the US marshals service have all been activated across the city. Often a single arrest will involve officers from multiple agencies and the local Metropolitan police department (MPD).
      Though the deployment of national guard troops from six states was the most high-profile aspect of the 30 days, the camo-clad troops, who are now armed, were largely focused on patrolling tourist sites and Union Station, the city’s main train station. With little work to be done, some were instructed to do landscaping and other “beautification” tasks …
      Washington DC residents have pushed back against what many call an occupation, which is deeply unpopular in the largely Democratic city. On Saturday, thousands marched from Malcolm X park in Northwest DC to the White House in an event organized by Free DC, a community organization working to protect the city’s Home Rule that has trained thousands of people since 11 August.
      Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking illegal suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.The US president took charge of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on 11 August for 30 days, activating the National Guard and deploying federal officers in what he framed as a crackdown on crime and homelessness but what was widely seen as another example of federal overreach.It is true that Washington DC has struggled with the scourge of gun violence, but its violent crime rate is at a 30-year low, much lower than that of cities in many red states.Trump’s 30-day emergency declaration has expired but over 2,000 national guard troops are patrolling the district – reportedly including several hundred sent from Republican-run states. It is unclear when their mission will end.Bowser issued an executive order at the beginning of the month requiring ongoing coordination between local law enforcement and various federal partners, though Ice was notably excluded.Trump blamed “Radical Left Democrats” for pressuring Bowser to inform the government about the non-cooperation with Ice, adding that if the police halted cooperation with Ice, “Crime would come roaring back.”He said: “To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”We will have more on this and other US politics stories throughout the day so stick with us. More

    • 188 Shares167 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘She doesn’t have the power to stop him’: DC mayor walks a tightrope with Trump

      by

      During a press conference at the end of August, Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, made sure to say “thank you” – in her own way – for Donald Trump’s influx of federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital.“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” Bowser said. She admitted that, after a recent meeting with the president, his knowledge of DC had “significantly increased” since his first term in the White House.Bowser pointed to recent data that shows a significant drop in violent crime, particularly carjackings, since more federal law enforcement began working with DC police. But she also offered some pushback.“What we know is not working is a break in trust between police and community,” Bowser said. “We know having masked Ice agents in the community has not worked, and national guards from other states has not been an efficient use of those resources.” She also underscored that if there were more local police officers, it would cancel out any need for any supplemental federal law enforcement.The president has spent years denigrating DC. After leaving office in 2021, and mounting his re-election campaign, he called the district “horribly run” and a “nightmare of murder and crime”. In August, he justified his “crime emergency” – after a former Doge staffer was attacked in DC – by describing the “bloodshed, bedlam and squalor” of the nation’s capital. He has also falsely claimed that violent crime in the district is the “worst it’s ever been”, despite it reaching a 30-year low in 2024, according to data compiled by the justice department.Trump promised repeatedly to “take over” DC on the campaign trail. Then, on 7 August, he started to send hundreds of federal agents to the capital to work with local law enforcement. Just days later, he declared a “public safety emergency”, allowing him to federalize the MPD for 30 days . He supplemented all of this by deploying the DC national guard. Now, about 2,300 national guard troops are patrolling the district – including several hundred sent from Republican-run states.Bowser did not denounce the move. Instead, she called it “unsettling” and said that it resembled an “authoritarian push” on a Zoom call with local organizers.Expressing deference to the president, while displaying a quiet pushback against his policies, is emblematic of the tightrope Bowser, who is the second-longest-serving mayor in DC’s history and is eyeing a fourth term, has been walking since Trump returned to office this year.It’s a far cry from her past willingness to undermine the president publicly. In 2020, during the height of the George Floyd racial justice protests that swept the country, the mayor called Trump a “scared man” on social media, as he tried to quell the demonstrations in the capital.She also called his use of federal law enforcement officials and national guard at the time an “invasion of our city” before announcing that a section of 16th Street, which is in front of the White House, would be renamed “Black Lives Matter Plaza” – with the road’s new name painted in tall yellow letters on the ground.When Trump returned to office, the pressure from the president and congressional Republicans to rename and pave over the plaza, or risk losing federal funding, forced Bowser’s hand in March. “We have bigger fish to fry,” she said of her decision to comply with the administration’s demands. “Now our focus is on making sure our residents and our economy survives.”Arguably, it signaled a new dawn in her ongoing power struggle with the president.Her apparent cooperation, including a recently signed executive order that ensures cooperation between MPD and federal officers indefinitely, has earned her praise from the administration. Trump congratulated Bowser’s compliance in a post from Truth Social. “Wow! Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. has become very popular because she worked with me and my great people in bringing CRIME down to virtually NOTHING in D.C,” the president wrote.On Monday, he also suggested that the mayor was more aligned with the administration’s goals than he had previously thought. “That’s not her ideology, but now I think that maybe is her ideology,” he said, while giving remarks at the Museum of the Bible in DC. “She’s taking a lot of heat from the radical left.”But Bowser’s apparent willingness to work with Trump has elicited frustration from members of the DC council. In a post on Twitter/X, the at-large council member Robert White pushed back against the mayor’s choice to credit federal officers in the capital.“This is trampling on democracy in real time, on our watch,” he said. “Sometimes we want to wait and see what’s happening, but that time has passed.” White later issued a statement that called for the rescission of the mayor’s order, calling it a “permission slip” that Trump was using to justify sending forces into other Democratic-led cities.“I wish there was greater resistance in this moment,” said Zachary Parker, a DC council member who represents Ward 5, which spans the Northeast quadrant of the district.“The mayor has been conciliatory to the president from the day she went to Mar-a-Lago to greet him to now – and look where we are,” he said.For longtime DC political analysts like Tom Sherwood, Bowser is stuck between a rock and a hard place.While he notes that her public appearances, like the late August press conference, could have more “vinegar”, Sherwood also says that language is only part of the dance – Bowser is ultimately forced to bend to the whims of a mercurial president who has a majority in both chambers of Congress.“The mayor has to consider pushing back where she can and not provoking even more attacks from this president, whose mind is like a weather vane when it comes to his attention to the district,” he said. “Both legally and politically, she doesn’t have the power to stop him.”Although DC does have limited self-governance, Congress is ultimately in charge of the district. Meanwhile, the president is allowed to keep both federal agents and national guard troops in the capital for as long as he deems necessary.“Every political person I’ve spoken to who doesn’t like what the mayor is doing can’t answer one question,” Sherwood said. “If you were mayor, with the limited power you had, what would you have done differently?”Many progressives in DC argue that Bowser is playing too nice, and isn’t reflecting the fact that almost 80% of DC residents oppose the takeover, according to a recent Washington Post-Schar School poll.While there isn’t any recent polling to show how the impact of the federal takeover has affected the mayor’s approval among DC locals, in May, 53% of residents were happy with Bowser’s job leading the district – a marked improvement from 46% the year prior. But the mayor has failed to reach the crest of approval ratings she received in the first five years of her tenure, which began in 2015.Recently, more than a hundred groups, local organizations and unions signed an open letter to Bowser, saying that her actions since 11 August had appeased Trump. “History is calling upon you to lead our people, not to cower in the face of an authoritarian who does not have our best interests in mind,” the letter reads.Ultimately, the mayor has to play the long game when handling the administration, according to a DC government source familiar with the mayor’s thinking. “We’re only eight months into this. There’s a lot of time left on the clock. DC’s only tool in the toolbox is soft power,” the source said. “Her only job is to protect the residents of Washington DC. She’s going to use whatever strategy is going to yield the best result for that specific mission.”Trump’s police takeover expired on 10 September, and the US House is not expected to vote on an extension – a sign that there might be a payoff to Bowser’s strategy.But, for Michael Fanone, the former DC police officer who has chronicled his work helping to defend the Capitol during the January 6 attack, it’s not as simple as hoping that Trump’s focus on the district will wane.“I don’t think we can say whether or not we know definitively that he’s off her back. I think that you see he’s moved on to another shiny object,” he said, referring to the surge of federal immigration agents in Chicago, and the president’s repeated threats to deploy national guard troops to the city. “Quite frankly, this isn’t just a local fight.”While the governors of blue states, like California’s Gavin Newsom, Illinois’s JB Pritzker and Maryland’s Wes Moore, have all taken vocal stands against the president, Sherwood recognizes that Bowser can’t risk the same ferocity. “I think she has made the calculation that most DC citizens will support her effort trying to battle Trump without the weapons other governments have,” he said. More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘Free DC’: the group leading fight against Trump’s Washington takeover

      by

      When a protest against Donald Trump’s militarized crackdown in Washington DC reached the White House last Saturday after a mile-and-a-half march, the thousands-strong crowd shouted a simple, two-word chant: “Free DC.”It’s a slogan with a long history in the federal district that has again become prominent after an activist group formed this year specifically to respond to the president’s threats of meddling took it as their name. Arguing that the struggle for the city’s rights is part of the larger fight for the country’s democracy, Free DC has galvanized thousands of district residents against the president’s attempts to interfere in Washington DC – a cause that came into focus last month when the president took over the police department and sent the national guard and federal agents on to city streets.“DC being under attack is a problem for American democracy, and that is what is at stake here,” said executive director Keya Chatterjee, a former neighborhood commissioner and climate activist who drew on her experience researching authoritarian takeovers at Democracy Fund to co-found the group.“You have to be able to have dissent in the capital in order to curb authoritarianism. You have to be able to do that and because we are uniquely vulnerable, it is a danger to everyone in this country, and therefore everyone in the world, that we don’t have equal rights under the law.”Though its population of more than 700,000 eclipses that of Vermont and Wyoming, Washington DC’s status as a federal district means it has no voting representation in Congress, which has the ability to meddle in policies approved by voters or the city council. While past presidents have found themselves occasionally drawn into the overwhelmingly Democratic city’s politics, Trump has targeted Washington DC like no one before him, most recently by saying federal intervention was needed to fight crime – rates of which are at 30-year lows.In the weeks since, he has threatened similar treatment to Chicago and New Orleans over their crime rates, while making no similar threats to the cities in Republican-led states that are in fact the most violent in the country.Washington DC residents watched nervously as Trump campaigned for re-election last year on a platform that included promises to “take over” their city. Two days after his victory, about 1,000 people gathered at a church in the capital to discuss how deal with the federal interventions that they expected under the new administration.“Every group that works on housing or unhoused neighbor support or immigrant support, all of us understood the gravity of what was coming, and we developed, had conversations, about what the right approach was, and recognized that a new campaign was going to be necessary,” said Alex Dodds, who co-founded the group and serves as its campaign director.View image in fullscreenThe group’s four co-founders had been involved in the racial justice protests that took place in the city after George Floyd’s death, as well as in efforts to protect Washington’s autonomy after Joe Biden and some Democrats supported a Republican-led effort to prevent the city from modernizing its criminal code in 2023. For their name, the new group chose a slogan that dates back to Washington’s struggle for self-governance in the 1960s and 1970s.“We’re fighting to protect home rule in the short term,” said Dodds, referring to the federal law that outlines the city’s government, “and win lasting dignity for DC communities in the long term, and for us, that does mean DC statehood ultimately.”Since forming in January, Free DC has trained about 5,000 people in the city’s eight wards, Chatterjee said, and held workshops on jury service, campaigning and how to safely take video of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents. Financially supported by the progressive organizing group Community Change, Chatterjee said small-dollar donations from individual donors have made up as much as a fourth of their budget, with foundations contributing the rest.True to his word, Trump set about meddling in the capital within weeks of taking office. He tried unsuccessfully to appoint a supporter of pardoning January 6 rioters as the top federal prosecutor, while congressional Republicans threw the city’s budget into chaos by stripping $1bn in funding, and refusing to pass legislation restoring it.Free DC’s goal has been to ensure that each of the president’s actions do not go unanswered, Chatterjee said. When Trump took control of the Kennedy Center in February and said he would stop the performing arts center from hosting drag shows, Free DC collaborated with other groups to host one nearby.In April, they brought parents and children to the Capitol to encourage lawmakers to pass legislation to restore the funds cut from the city’s budget, and held a rally outside the White House as Trump announced his takeover of the police department in August.“I have been amazed at how many of my neighbors I’ve met through doing this that I just have passed by 100 times on the street, probably, but, like, haven’t connected with,” said Stephanie Rudig, a freelance graphic designer who was visiting congressional offices last week with Free DC to encourage House representatives to oppose Trump’s involvement in policing the city.“It really is bringing people together in a trauma-binding kind of way.”Despite all the time they spend in Washington DC and their power over it, senators and representatives can be disconnected from the city’s needs, said Ankit Jain, one of the city’s two elected shadow senators, who advocate for its rights and the long-term goal of becoming the 51st state.When Jain has met with lawmakers to encourage them to restore funds to the city’s budget recently, they have often mentioned that they had heard about the issue from Free DC’s visits.“We were talking to everyone, Republicans and Democrats, and you’d have quotes from people saying, oh yeah, I heard about this from some group of DC residents. And it was always Free DC,” Jain said.View image in fullscreenHis office has coordinated with the group on ways to make federal lawmakers aware of the city’s issues.“What I think is really important about them is that they are thinking long term. They’re thinking proactively,” he said.“We need them in this moment, but I think there will be many more moments that we need this kind of support, and I think they’re building a structure and a support base that’ll keep them around for the long run.”Trump’s foray into policing the city energized support for Free DC. Flyers bearing the group’s name have been plastered across the city, and in mid-August, chants of “Free DC” were heard from the stands at a Washington Spirit women’s soccer game. Protesters shouted the slogan at the president when he made a rare trip to a restaurant in the capital this week.Last Saturday’s protest march was the largest demonstration against Trump’s meddling since it began, and was co-hosted by Free DC along with dozens of labor unions and activist groups. Thousands streamed through downtown Washington as churches rang their bells and a black-clad server at the Cheesecake Factory around the corner from the White House stood on a chair and shouted, “Free DC.”“It’s important that our community be united against that which is making us unsafe,” said Koach Baruch Frazier, a rabbi who volunteers with Free DC and attended the march.Trump, he said, “is throwing everything at us, and we are throwing it back”. More

    • 188 Shares99 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘It’s not safe in DC as an immigrant’: racial profiling surged during Trump’s Washington takeover

      by

      In the 30 days since Donald Trump took control of Washington DC’s police department and deployed national guard troops, the city has seen the indiscriminate detention of immigrants, the rise of racial profiling and the arrests of large numbers of people for low-level crimes.The US president claimed the takeover, which began on 11 August, was necessary because of violent crime in the country’s capital, especially after the attempted carjacking and assault of a former Doge staffer. “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Trump said during a news conference at the White House at the time.But although Washington DC has long struggled with gun violence, its violent crime rate is at a 30-year low, much lower than that of cities in red states. And the large majority of people affected by the federal takeover are not perpetrators of violent crime.Both groups targeted – immigrants and those accused of minor crimes – have been largely picked up by law enforcement through racial profiling and other tactics that experts say have instilled a climate of fear and a distrust of law enforcement.A White House official said on Monday that 2,120 people have been arrested since the start of Trump’s takeover, 20 known gang members had been arrested and 214 firearms had been seized. Although violent crime has decreased during this period, Washington residents say the impact has not been worth the overbearing law enforcement presence.View image in fullscreenFederal agents with numerous agencies, including Immigrations and customs enforcement (Ice), Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Park Service, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the US marshals service have all been activated across the city. Often a single arrest will involve officers from multiple agencies and the local Metropolitan police department (MPD).Though the deployment of national guard troops from six states was the most high-profile aspect of the 30 days, the camo-clad troops, who are now armed, were largely focused on patrolling tourist sites and Union Station, the city’s main train station. With little work to be done, some were instructed to do landscaping and other “beautification” tasks.The Home Rule Act – which allowed Washington DC to establish a local government – only allows the president to take over the city’s police department for 30 days without approval from Congress, aspects of Trump’s actions are likely to continue past Wednesday. Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued an order for the MPD to coordinate with federal law enforcement to the “maximum extent allowable by law within the District”, and national guard troops reportedly may stay until the end of the year.Washington DC residents have pushed back against what many call an occupation, which is deeply unpopular in the largely Democratic city. On Saturday, thousands marched from Malcolm X park in Northwest DC to the White House in an event organized by Free DC, a community organization working to protect the city’s Home Rule that has trained thousands of people since 11 August.“Trump’s crackdown does not create safety, but its opposite,” said Scott Michelman, legal director for the ACLU of DC. “People are scared to go to their jobs, to drop off their kids at school, and to go about their daily lives because of the pervasive law enforcement and military presence that Trump has foisted on this city.”When Trump first announced the takeover of the local police department, he said cops will be allowed to do “whatever the hell they want”.Over the last 30 days, offenses that before 11 August would likely not have led to arrest have resulted in criminal charges, and federal law enforcement who have accompanied MPD have used policing tactics, such as car chases, check points, and stop and frisks, that MPD typically avoids and that experts say may violate the US constitution.“Anyone who has studied the history of policing in this country knows that that type of green light to pursue inchoate hunches, to use force, to stop people at random, falls most heavily on Black and brown people, and we have sadly but predictably seen that play out on the streets of the district,” Michelman said. “We’re deeply concerned that one of the primary effects of Trump’s surge and militarization of law enforcement in DC has been racial profiling.”While some communities, especially those that suffer from a disproportionate amount of violent crime, have been grateful for additional policing and patrolling, much of the activity has not targeted dangerous criminals.According to a Reuters analysis of records from Washington’s superior court from halfway through the takeover, the federal agents have been “converging in large numbers on low-level crimes such as marijuana use and public alcohol consumption”. More than half of the cases federal agents were involved in were minor offenses, including misdemeanors and felonies under Washington DC’s code, but not federal felonies.In the first two weeks, just over 30 cases were filed in federal court for more serious gun and drug-related charges. But many of the charges federal officials have tried to land have not stuck. Grand juries have refused to indict defendants at an unprecedented rate, and judges have also pushed back against the tactics.“This is perhaps one of the weakest requests for detention I have seen and something that, prior to two weeks ago, would have been unthinkable in this courthouse,” magistrate judge Zia M Faruqui said on 28 August.Faruqui has also called out police for racial profiling defendants. In one incident, she claimed a Black man was singled out by police because he was carrying a large bag.View image in fullscreen“It is without a doubt the most illegal search I’ve even seen in my life,” Faruqui said, according to NPR. “I’m absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened. A high school student would know this was an illegal search.”Michelman of the ACLU said: “We’ve heard of a sharp uptick in stops that appear to be inexplicable except by the individual’s race or personal appearance.”Maryland resident Brandon Worthan told the Guardian he was subjected to what he claims was an illegal search when he came to Washington on 27 August.The 38-year-old was waiting for his girlfriend outside her soon-to-be-opened bar on a quiet stretch of H St Northeast at about 9pm, and said he was speaking to another Black man on the street when roughly 30 to 40 vehicles suddenly pulled up. “Out of nowhere, I just got blitzed,” he said. “All kinds of unmarked police cars, MPD, Secret Service, all kinds of cop cars just pulled up on me and they didn’t ask me any questions.” He said he later saw vests identifying agents with the DEA, FBI, Ice, the US marshal service, and troops in military camo.According to video from the incident and Worthan’s account, officers grabbed his arms, put him in handcuffs, searched his body, and found a bottle of alcohol in his back pocket. “I wasn’t drinking the bottle,” he said. “I didn’t have it in my hand.”Worthan spent the night in the central cell block, where defendants are held temporarily until their court appearance. He said the room was filled with people arrested for similar low-level crimes, including smoking weed and simple assault. “It was, like, 200 people going to court that day,” he said. Worthan said he never saw a judge, and was released by 4pm the next day, with no charges filed.“He’s targeting minorities and people from different countries,” Worthan said about Trump. “It’s just crazy to see it on social media and TV, and then when they actually do it to me, I’m like wow this is really what’s going on.”“I think what’s happening is it is getting people to be off the streets because everyone is just like: ‘I could get messed with by the police for standing outside.’”Shortly after Trump’s 11 August announcement about his intentions in Washington DC, attorney general Pam Bondi instructed the local police department to work with federal immigration enforcement officials.A large part of the Trump administration’s action in Washington over the last 30 days has focused on detaining undocumented people. They have gone about this by setting up Ice checkpoints at busy intersections in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods and patrolling in specific locations, such as restaurants, churches, and schools, that tend to employ immigrants.Ice has reportedly teamed up with local police to target delivery drivers on mopeds, and videos have circulated the internet showing arrests of construction workers and other laborers as they drive or go about their jobs.“We have documented, time and time again, people being pulled over simply because they may be Brown or Black, they may look like an immigrant, they may be speaking Spanish,” said Amy Fischer, a court organizer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid in Washington DC.View image in fullscreenThe increased enforcement has created a culture of fear among the city’s immigrants, with many saying they have been afraid to leave their homes, go to work, walk down the street, drive their cars or take their children to school.“People are very very scared and are doing what they can to simply avoid being in DC,” Fisher said. “There simply is an understanding that it’s not safe to exist in DC as an immigrant.”Immigration enforcement has particularly targeted the Home Depot in Washington DC, like in other cities, due to the large number of undocumented day laborers who often gather outside. Emily, who wanted to be referred to using first name, said her neighbor in the Brookland neighborhood was detained on 11 August when he took his white work van to Home Depot to buy materials for a construction project. Ice has reportedly been targeting laborers in white vans across Washington.The man, who has three kids including a three-month-old baby, is being held in detention in Virginia and hasn’t seen his family since.“It took three of four days for him to show up in the system and know where he was,” Emily said.His business partner, with whom he also shares a house, is now extremely scared to be out, and is driving minivans to work instead of his typical white van.The Trump administration has said it plans to replicate some of what it did in Washington DC in other cities, including Chicago where it says an operation targeting immigrants is under way.Fischer said she doesn’t expect much to change in Washington DC, either, now that the 30 days are up. “We still expect MPD to work with Ice and to do immigration enforcement and things like checkpoints,” she said, and immigration enforcement may become a regular presence across the city.As a result, immigrants are unsure when they will feel safe being out in the city. “At this point, we have more questions than answers,” she said. More

    • 175 Shares199 Views

      in World Politics

      FO° Podcasts: Why Has Trump Deployed Thousands of National Guard Troops in Washington, DC?

      by

      Fair Observer Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh speaks with Ankit Jain, a voting rights attorney and the shadow senator of Washington, DC. Together, they discuss the city’s unusual political status, US President Donald Trump’s interventions in the capital and broader questions about crime, governance, statehood and the future of American democracy.

      LISTEN ON:
      ALSO AVAILABLE ON:

      What is a shadow senator?

      Jain begins by clarifying his unusual role as one of DC’s two elected shadow senators. Unlike other states, Washington, DC, has no voting representation in Congress. To push for statehood and defend its autonomy, the city created two non-voting senators and one non-voting representative. Jain, elected in November 2024 and sworn in this January, explains that his position is part-advocate, part-lobbyist and part-symbolic lawmaker. His chief responsibility is to fight for DC to become the 51st state and secure full representation for its 700,000 residents.

      Turmoil in Washington, DC?

      Singh turns the conversation to Trump’s controversial policy decisions in the capital. Jain describes how Trump took control of the Metropolitan Police Department for 30 days, placing it under a presidentially appointed official. Trump also sent in hundreds of federal agents and more than 2,000 National Guard troops. The stated aim was to reduce crime, but Jain argues the real goal was to reshape policing “in his own image,” encouraging brutality and overriding DC laws on cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He points to raids that terrified the Latino community and recalls seeing federal troops idling around tourist sites like the National Mall rather than addressing real problems.

      DC’s governance structure

      Jain then explains how fragile DC’s self-government really is. While the city elects a mayor and council, the federal government controls the judiciary and prosecution of adult crimes. Judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and the US Attorney — also a presidential appointee — handles prosecutions. Right now, one in five local court seats sits vacant, slowing trials and fueling more crime. The US Attorney’s office, meanwhile, suffers from mass firings that gutted its capacity. Even when DC passes its own laws, Congress can block or repeal them within 30 to 60 days. To Jain, this makes self-rule an illusion, unlike London or other world capitals, where residents govern their own affairs.

      Crime in DC

      Trump has repeatedly claimed that crime in Washington is spiraling. Jain challenges this, citing objective data: Crime is down 25% year-on-year, violent crime is at a 30-year low and overall rates remain below pre-COVID-19 levels. He accuses Trump of spreading lies to justify costly deployments that burn “millions of [taxpayer] dollars a day” without solving problems.

      Jain acknowledges DC still faces crime and homelessness, but argues solutions require smarter police deployment, housing reform and more funding for mental health. It does not need troop surges and headline-grabbing raids. He also notes that federal restrictions like the Height Act prevent the city from building enough affordable housing, driving rents higher and fueling homelessness.

      Trump’s attacks on DC

      Jain sees Trump’s interventions as part of a larger pattern. By stripping money from DC’s budget, firing federal workers and blocking judicial nominations, Trump is deliberately weakening the city. These moves deepen DC’s “mini-recession” and leave essential services, from schools to emergency response, undermanned. In Jain’s view, Trump’s goal is not to fix urban challenges but to create crises, then claim sweeping authority to impose his preferred policies.

      Should Washington, DC, be a state?

      For Jain, it is clear that Washington, DC, should be a state. He argues that nearly every problem facing the capital — crime policy, housing shortages, budget manipulation — stems from the fact that DC is not a state. Its residents pay taxes, serve in the military and number more than Wyoming or Vermont, yet they lack voting representation. Jain calls it a modern case of “taxation without representation,” pointing out that no other democratic nation in the world denies its capital city’s residents the vote. Statehood, he insists, is the only path to justice.

      The National Guard in other cities?

      Singh raises Trump’s threats to send the National Guard into Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois. Jain warns this is no idle talk — DC is simply the test case. Because it is not a state, it was an easy target. If successful, Trump could expand the model to cities like Chicago, Detroit, Michigan, or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, coercing them into repealing policies or cutting federal funds. Jain calls this a “dangerous precedent” and urges Senate Democrats to resist using every tool available, including the filibuster, to stop such power grabs.

      Democrats need an upgrade

      Finally, Singh raises a broader critique: Democrats have failed urban America. Jain concedes there is truth in this. Democrats, he says, often rely too much on the “old guard” and resist fresh ideas. Still, he pushes back against Republican attacks, noting that Grand Old Party-led cities often have higher crime rates, largely because of permissive gun laws. He argues that Democrats need to show a new vision while Republicans must stop blocking gun control measures and sabotaging agencies like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

      To Jain, Trump’s actions in DC reveal a deeper threat: an authoritarian drift that undermines American democracy itself. If left unchecked, he warns, it could spread from Washington to the rest of the nation.

      [Lee Thompson-Kolar edited this piece.]

      The views expressed in this article/podcast are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More

    • 225 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump claims Chicago is ‘world’s most dangerous city’. The four most violent ones are all in red states

      by

      As Donald Trump threatens to deploy national guard units to Chicago and Baltimore, ostensibly to quell violence, a pattern has emerged as he describes which cities he talks about.Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore.But not Jackson, Birmingham, St Louis or Memphis.An analysis of crime trends over the last four years shows two things. First, violent crime rates in America’s big cities have been falling over the last two years, and at an even greater rate over the last six months. The decrease in violence in America is unprecedented.Second, crime in large cities in the aggregate is lower in states with Democratic leadership. But the president focuses his ire almost exclusively on large blue cities in blue states, sidestepping political conflict with red Republican governors.The four cities of populations larger than 100,000 with the highest murder rates in 2024 are in Republican states: Jackson, Mississippi (78.7 per 100,000 residents), Birmingham, Alabama (58.8), St Louis, Missouri (54.1) and Memphis, Tennessee (40.6).On Tuesday, Trump called Chicago “the most dangerous city in the world”, and pledged to send military troops there, as well as to Baltimore. “I have an obligation. This isn’t a political thing,” he said at a press conference. “I have an obligation when 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks and 75 are shot with bullets.”When talking about crime in Chicago, Trump regularly refers to the number of people who may have been shot and killed there. But Chicago has a population of about 2.7 million, which is larger than each of the least-populous 15 states. It is roughly the same population as Mississippi. Chicago’s homicide rate for 2024 was 17.5 murders for every 100,000 residents, only a few points higher than that of the state of Louisiana, which was 14.5 per 100,000 in 2024.As has become tradition, news outlets reported how many people were killed in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend. At Louisiana’s rates, one would predict almost twice as many people to have been murdered there over the long weekend.But those numbers are harder to count. Chicago police report a single figure. One has to scour a hundred local news sites around Louisiana to aggregate the count for comparison.Notably, Trump discussed sending troops to New Orleans this week. “We’re making a determination now,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Do we go to Chicago or do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad?”And Landry signaled his willingness to accede. “We will take President Trump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” he wrote on X, posting a clip of the exchange.Still, Chicago is bracing to be the next city targeted by the Trump administration. To date this year, 278 people have been killed in Chicago, 118 fewer people killed when compared with 2024. It is at pace for 412 deaths for the year, which would be a rate of about 15 per 100,000 residents. The rate is likely to be lower still than that, because homicide rates increase during summer months.The Windy City ranked 37th in homicide rate in 2024 for cities larger than 50,000 residents in the United States. For cities with more than 100,000 residents, it placed 14th. This year, it is likely to slide farther down the list, even as violence falls to 60-year lows.As reported by the FBI’s crime data unit in August, the United States had a homicide rate of about 4.6 per 100,000 residents in 2024. It is the lowest figure since 2014, and very close to the generational lows of 4 to 4.5 per 100,000 last experienced in the early 1960s. The pandemic wave of increased violence has largely receded.“We know that across the nation [violence is] going down,” said Dr Thaddeus Johnson, a former Tennessee police officer and senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, a policy thinktank.The 2024 homicide rate in the US decreased by about 15%, one of the largest drops in American history. Most of that decrease can be attributed to declines in the largest cities, Johnson said.Criminal justice researchers tend to place higher value on murder rates than other indicators of violent crime, because murder statistics are harder to manipulate. “It’s the most trustworthy data point,” Johnson said. But it’s not the only data point. “When you start talking about aggravated assaults and robberies, generally, we’ve seen that going down across the nation as well.”Both Chicago and Baltimore implemented or expanded antiviolence programs in 2022 using American Rescue Plan funding – much of which has been cut under Trump. Baltimore’s homicide rate has fallen about 40% since 2020, and in 2025 is pacing a 50-year low to date.Violent crime had also been falling in Washington DC by substantial margins before Trump took over the city’s policing. His announcement last month referenced DC’s 2023 crime rates, which spiked during the pandemic, while saying nothing about the precipitous fall since.In January, the Metropolitan police department and US attorney’s office reported that total violent crime in DC in 2024 was down 35% from the prior year, marking the lowest rate in over 30 years.The Guardian analyzed the murder rates for the largest 50 cities in the US and found that cities in blue states had the lowest, with just 7.8 murders per 100,000 people. The cities in red states have a much higher murder rate, of 12.9. Cities in swing states sit in the middle, with a murder rate of 10.2.Baltimore ranks fifth on a list of cities over 50,000 population by murder rate in 2024, as reported to the FBI statisticians. Washington DC is 15th. Between them are Wilmington, Delaware; Detroit; Cleveland; Dayton, Ohio; North Little Rock, Arkansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Shreveport, Louisiana; Camden, New Jersey, and Albany, Georgia.Compliance with federal rules on crime reporting is incomplete, and some agencies report incomplete data. One notable example of this is Jackson, Mississippi, which has consistently gathered crime data but only started submitting it to the FBI’s system this year. Jackson recorded 111 homicides in 2024, in a population of about 141,000: a rate of 78.7, the highest in America for any city with a population over 50,000.Though St Louis posted the second-highest homicide rate in 2024, violence there has been falling since 2023, and is on pace today for a 10% annual drop. Its rate will fall less sharply, however, because St Louis is losing population.Memphis led the country’s homicide rate in 2023. To date in 2025, murders and non-negligent homicides are down about 25%, after a 22% decrease in 2024. Like Baltimore, Memphis leaders attribute the decrease in part to an aggressive gun violence reduction initiative, Memphis Allies.Notably, small changes in smaller cities can have a big statistical effect.Birmingham, with a population of about 200,000, has cut its murder rate by more than half since the start of the year. Local officials attribute this, in part, to the arrest of a handful of people accused of violence, including Damien McDaniel, who has been charged in the murders of 18 people as a hired hitman. His arrest in October – and that of four other people who are linked to him – coincides with a 55% drop in Birmingham’s homicide rate since. More