What a busy week President Trump is having. Yesterday he “federalized” the District of Columbia police force, effectively ending Home Rule for D.C.’s estimated 695,000 residents. And then there’s his meeting with war criminal and dictator Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where Trump hopes to end the war in Ukraine by declaring Putin the winner. It is almost as though the Jeffrey Epstein scandal is over.
The ghost of Mr. Epstein has not yet been banished, but let’s give the president a gold star (the only type acceptable to him) for trying. Many of us disagree on almost everything with our MAGA friends and neighbors, but we all agree that sexual assault of young girls is heinous.
But what about declaring an emergency to legitimize a federal takeover of D.C.? For me, and many of us on the Eastern Shore who have lived or worked in D.C., this is also heinous.
D.C. crime is not out of control. Violent crime has decreased 26 percent in 2025 compared to 2024. Robberies have decreased by 26 percent. The Trump administration, as you might expect, challenges these statistics, which were reported by the D.C. Metropolitan Police.
Violent crime was and likely would have continued to drop even without the deployment of the National Guard and officers from the Park Police, ATF, Secret Service, ICE, and FBI to the streets of D.C. (I am relieved that U.S. Space Force Guardians are not part of Trump’s show of force.)
I lived in D.C. for several years and worked there for more than 30 years. Like President Trump, I did not like seeing drunks, homeless people, or beggars on the streets, but I never once wanted to see homeless people “removed immediately, far away from our beautiful capital city” or 14-year-olds prosecuted as adults even if charged with violent crimes.
In coming weeks—and maybe even before you read this column—you will read or hear White House officials announce that the takeover of D.C. has resulted in hundreds of arrests and a sharp drop in violent crime. But I also suspect there will be instances of people—some involved in committing crimes—who will be shot and killed and other instances where people will get arrested or “roughed-up,” as the President likes to say. Those instances, representing civil rights violations and police abuse, are not acceptable, to me and many others.
As has already been pointed out, National Guardsmen are not trained police officers. Neither are FBI agents, who, it must be noted, did not seek careers at the Agency to be deployed to fight street crime in D.C. Thus, I worry that many officers, some of whom will be sweltering in bullet-proof vests in 95-degree temperatures, will not be happy. And unhappy police officers are more likely to make bad judgments than appropriately trained happy ones.
I recall driving to work in 2001, right after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. There were National Guardsmen with M-16s on what appeared to be every corner for blocks in downtown Washington. The sight of the U.S. military patrolling D.C. streets was deeply disturbing, but necessary. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were an emergency that necessitated the actions taken. There is no emergency justifying Trump’s actions in D.C.
Trump’s takeover of D.C. will go down in history as unjustified and unwise. Hopefully, that history will not include police violence and unjustified shootings. I also wonder if historians will come to see the “D.C. crackdown” as part of the campaign of distraction now underway directed by a failing 79-year-old president who can’t shake the Epstein scandal.
As someone with special ties to D.C, that include being born there, attending college and law school there, and working there for decades, I want D.C. residents to control their city—just like I want Eastern Shore residents to enjoy self-rule.
Donald Trump is denying Washingtonians a basic right, but he doesn’t care. D.C. voters rejected Trump in 2024. He won only 6.6 percent of the vote, 21,076 votes, as compared to Kamala Harris’ 92.5 percent. D.C. residents are throw-aways to Trump. I can imagine Trump saying they are too stupid be allowed to govern themselves.
J.E. Dean writes on politics, government but, too frequently, on President Trump. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.
Joseph Fick says
You are so far over the edge it is funny.
J. Dean says
Forgive me for saying it. You have a strange sense of humor. Or should I just say different than mine?
Deirdre LaMotte says
We’ll put Mr. Dean. For those who are naysayers , I love this quote:
“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.”
Mark Twain
That is a man who would have flourished now as well.
James Nick says
Mr Dean wonders if historians will come to see the “D.C. crackdown” as part of the campaign of distraction from the Epstein scandal.
The “DC crackdown” goes far beyond distraction. There are so many synergies at work here that it’s hard to see the bigger picture and equally hard to decide on the main purpose of the action.
Perhaps the primary driver is that this sort of thing is red meat for the MAGAs. Good or bad, right or wrong, ethical or unethical, legal or illegal, it doesn’t matter. Disrupting the liberal status quo is the goal. Name any big progress America and American citizens have made and trump is wrecking it or actively threatening it. It is trump’s raison d’être.
That the crackdown is happening in DC makes it even more delectable. It’s a naked display of righteous power and retribution visited upon one of the bluest of blue cities (DC vote: Harris 92.5%; trump 6.6%) and is the epicenter of the deep state. It’s Sodom and Gomorrah rolled into one. The symbolism is so simple and straightforward that even the most casual and disengaged can hardly miss it. It also serves as a threat to other blue cities as trump has explicitly made clear.
But perhaps the most overarching reason for the action is that trump is positioning himself to be the king of the world. As reported in Axios (https://www.axios.com/2025/05/11/trump-maga-western-civilization), the MAGA movement is no longer just fighting for trump. His most fervent loyalists are now engaged in what they see as nothing less than a battle for “Western civilization”. For the true MAGAs, “Preserving Western Civilization” is the new “Make America Great Again.”
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that trump will extend his occupation of Washington indefinitely before asking his rubber-stamp congress to end home rule and remake the city into a MAGA redoubt.
Patty Heaps says
Only Donald Trump can get the left to come out in favor of criminals even after significant evidence that the crime numbers have been manipulated by the Metropolitan Police Department. What will be next week’s cherry-picked outrage? It would be fun if it were a Nobel Prize nomination but we’ll wait and see. I get it, if Democrats admit that there is support for what Trump is doing, they would be getting closer to realizing that they’re the reason the support exists. They would have to stare directly into the eyes of utter repudiation and admit that, other than obstructionist tantrums, they have nothing to offer the American people.
Katy Lightburn says
You are so right, Patty. Democrats must love criminals. TDS continues, Democrat platform is hate. They have gone over the cliff Mr. Fick. They refuse to see any good in cleaning up violence, lawlessness, filth, and that it might help people. I read ignorance of the facts and they call us idiots!
Deirdre LaMotte says
Gee, the Dems are the lover of “criminals”?! Hahahaha. How about the former great “Party” elect a person without 34 (!) felony charges? Oh, and perhaps select a person of honor who is not making billions for his family while in office.
And please, drop the Hunter cr*p. It was the dreadful daughter and son in law of this current POTUS
criminal who made $640 million while
“working” in daddy’s administration, and then received $2 billion from those responsible for 9/11.
And that was during the first term…
And you have the nerve to talk about crime. Give me a boat load of immigrants who risk life and limb to reach our great nation over anyone who defends this lawless, disgraceful group of half-wits.
Katy Lightburn says
Deirdre, You are so blinded by hate I feel sorry for you. You can rant and rave and call us names all you want. We are still Making America Great Again every day for everyone, including you. God Bless America!
Deirdre LaMotte says
Sorry Katy. Your projection is obvious.
Can you please identify my “hate”?
The idea that policies are the issue is no longer, it is about decency.
Not sure if it is a far right Catholic thing going on, but to support a damaged man who is a front person for authoritarianism is telling. And to support the fascist, yes fascist, behind him is disgusting.
Americans are from all back grounds. We are all immigrants, unless indigenous. I believe in
personal freedom: to marry, to decide personal choices, to vote, to breath air and drink water that is not polluted, to support democracies abroad and that all men are created equal in
our ever-evolving nation. And I want a man of character to lead us. Not a charlatan making
billions off the Office of the Presidency.
Curious that this triggers you.
I