COMMENT - BOOTS ON THE GROUND

Tourists who came to Washington, D.C., last week—tromping from one Smithsonian collection to another, eating ice cream on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—witnessed a bit of history that they surely had not anticipated: the beginning of President Trump's takeover of the District.

- -Margaret Talbot

At a press conference that Monday, Trump had vowed to bring order to a place that he said was beset by “total lawlessness,” and by “bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor.” Within days, D.C.’s police force had been federalized, the National Guard had been mobilized, and hundreds of troops had shown up, many in drab-colored Humvees.

Few tourists, and fewer locals, would recognize the nightmarish place in Trump’s depiction. D.C., like virtually every American city, has crime and homelessness; in 2023, it experienced a notable spike in carjackings. But its problems are long-simmering, not acute. According to Metropolitan Police Department statistics, violent crime is down twenty-six per cent since the same time last year.

In any case, Trump's display of federal muscle was concentrated not in the neighborhoods where crime is most prevalent but in the iconic, touristic spots near the White House. Perhaps he envisioned a sort of sequel to the military parade that he staged in June, with made-for-Fox-News visuals: National Guardsmen clustered around the Washington Monument, D.E.A. agents standing outside an upscale bakery in Georgetown. On Fourteenth Street, a lively nightlife corridor with a diverse population, men wearing ICE and Homeland Security vests operated a checkpoint at which agents, several with faces covered, pulled over drivers and questioned them. (According to the Washington Post, at least two were detained.) People walking their dogs or heading out on dates stopped to heckle. “Oh, I feel so much safer,” a young woman scoffed. “Fascists, go home!” a guy on a bike shouted.