The scariest thing about Trump? Nothing he does can shock us any more
A trope of the Trump years is that a Hollywood scriptwriter would be laughed out of town for authoring such a madcap screenplay. America is in its final season, goes the joke, and the showrunners have completely jumped the shark. On this occasion, however, they would have been sent back to the writing room, and told to try harder. The personal insults. The threats of cancelled government contracts. Even Musk's taunt about the Jeffrey Epstein files felt cliched. I would not even have been surprised if either Trump or Musk had sought to monetise their row by launching a crypto coin in the shape of a broken heart. That is a measure of how, in the 10 years since Trump descended that golden escalator, the abnormal has been normalised.
The chaos in Los Angeles was also entirely foreseeable. A crackdown on protesters in a Democratic-run city in a Democratic-run state was always going to be an obvious Trump play. Better still, the faux flashpoint came when agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tried to arrest and expel unauthorised immigrants. For Trump, the staging for this American passion play could hardly have been more perfect.
And what a dramatis personae and props. An African-American Democratic mayor, Karen Bass. A liberal Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, with a surname that lends itself to the playground slur 'Newscum' which Trump rejoices in using. A Democratic US senator, Alex Padilla, being bundled out of a press conference and then handcuffed after trying to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question. Protesters waving the national flag of Mexico. And a big beautiful battalion of federalised National Guard, under the president's command and control, with 700 US Marines standing by on the fringes of the city.
'Lights! Camera! Action!' A Hollywood summer blockbuster executive produced by the country's most powerful executive.
Nor should we overlook how the Democratic Party, and the Biden administration in particular, was crucial in the plot development. 'Democrats have gotten the border issue so wrong, for so long, that it amounts to political malpractice,' wrote W ashington Post columnist David Ignatius, a frequent Trump critic.
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The Musk meltdown and Los Angeles showdown are, of course, linked. Trump, whose personal approval ratings have slumped sharply, needed a distraction after the breakdown of his billionaire bromance, and Musk's complaints that the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit.
So Trump became the first US president since 1965 to federalise the National Guard without the agreement of a state governor. Back then, in one of the most climactic showdowns of the civil rights era, president Lyndon Johnson did so to protect black protesters marching between Montgomery and Selma, who had been bludgeoned by Alabama state troopers on 'Bloody Sunday'. Johnson's opponent was George Wallace, the white supremacist governor of Alabama, a 'Dixie' demagogue often viewed as a populist forerunner of Trump. Wallace would have applauded the president's announcement this week restoring the names of seven army bases which honoured Confederate leaders.
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9 News
28 minutes ago
- 9 News
Trump putting Washington police under federal control, deploying National Guard
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here US President Donald Trump says he's deploying the National Guard across Washington, DC , and taking over the city's police department in the hopes of reducing crime, even as the city's mayor has noted that crime is falling in the nation's capital. The Republican president, who said he was formally declaring a public safety emergency, compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others. Trump also said at his news briefing that his administration has started removing homeless encampments "from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks". US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, August 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) "We're getting rid of the slums, too," Trump said, adding that the US would not lose its cities and that Washington was just a start. Attorney General Pam Bondi will be taking over responsibility for Washington's metro police department, he said, while also complaining about potholes and graffiti in the city and calling them "embarrassing". For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings. But the move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials as well as the National Guard, raising fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts. The president has used his social media and White House megaphones to message that his administration is tough on crime, yet his ability to shape policy might be limited outside of Washington, which has a unique status as a congressionally established federal district. Nor is it clear how his push would address the root causes of homelessness and crime. Trump said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy members of the National Guard. Protesters demonstrate against US President Donald Trump's planned use of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in Washington, during a rally in front of the White House, Monday, August 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation's capital as part of the Trump administration's effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday (Early Tuesday AEST). More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are also contributing officers. The person was not authorised to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn't immediately have a comment. US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, August 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of using the Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the DC Superior Court, some of which have been open for years. Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon. "I just think that's not the most efficient use of our Guard," she said on Sunday on MSNBC's The Weekend , acknowledging it is "the president's call about how to deploy the Guard". Bowser was making her first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. Trump's weekend posts depicted the district as "one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World". For Bowser, "Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false". Mayor of the District of Columbia Muriel Bowser speaks as US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, left, listens during a news conference in Washington, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasised the removal of Washington's homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go. "The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote on Sunday. "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong." Last week, the Republican president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option "to extend as needed". On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the US Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington. Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was "ridiculous" and the city was "unsafe", after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency. The US Capitol building gives backdrop to a homeless man resting on a steam vent on the National Mall, December 18, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26 per cent compared with this time a year ago. Trump offered no details in Truth Social posts over the weekend about possible new actions to address crime levels he argues are dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers alike. The White House declined to offer additional details about Monday's announcement. The police department and the mayor's office did not respond to questions about what Trump might do next. The president criticised the district as full of "tents, squalor, filth, and Crime", and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others. US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, August 11, 2025, in Washington, as Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi look on. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) "This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country," Trump said Wednesday. He called Bowser "a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances". Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining. It could face steep pushback. Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city's police, but only if certain conditions are met. "None of those conditions exist in our city right now," she said. "We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down." Donald Trump US POLITICS Politics crime police washington USA World CONTACT US
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Trump deploys National Guard to tackle Washington crime
US President Donald Trump said Monday he will deploy military and federal law enforcement in Washington as he seeks to curb violent crime in the nation's capital. The Republican leader told a White House news conference he plans to place the DC Metropolitan Police under the direct control of the federal government while sending in the National Guard. The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged -- although violent offenses are down. "This is Liberation Day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back," Trump said. Trump -- a convicted felon who has pardoned around 1,500 people involved in the 2021 US Capitol riot in Washington -- has complained that local police and prosecutors aren't tough enough. He has repeatedly threatened a federal takeover of the city of 700,000, saying crime in Washington was "totally out of control." The new approach echoes Trump's immigration policies that have effectively sealed the southern border amid mass deportations while deploying active-duty troops against protesters in Los Angeles. The president told reporters he planned to roll out the policy to other cities, spotlighting problems in New York and Chicago. Unlike the 50 states, Washington operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters. Since the mid-1970s, the Home Rule Act has allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although Congress still controls the city's budget. "There's absolutely no need for the National Guard here," Elizabeth Critchley, 62, said at a protest outside the White House. "It's all for show. It's just a big theater." Data from Washington police show significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge. - Crime is 'ending' - Trump posted on social media ahead of the news conference that he also wants to tackle homeless encampments, after signing an order last month making it easier to arrest homeless people. Trump ordered homeless people to "move out" of the city in a Truth Social post on Sunday, vowing to "make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before." He promised individuals "places to stay," but "FAR from the Capital." Trump said criminals would be jailed and that it would all happen "very fast." Federal law enforcement have already increased their presence after a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer was beaten during an attempted carjacking. "Last week my administration surged 500 federal agents into the district including from the FBI, ATF, DEA, Park Police, the US Marshals Service, the Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security," Trump said. "You know a lot of nations, they don't have anything like that... They made dozens of arrests." A Gallup poll in October found that 64 percent of Americans believed crime had risen in 2024, although FBI data shows the lowest levels of violent crime nationwide in more than half a century. "Let me be crystal clear -- crime in DC is ending, and it's ending today," said Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was among several cabinet members flanking Trump. Trump called Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser a "good person who has tried" at the weekend but added that she had been given "many chances" to improve living standards. Bowser has not criticized Trump over his threats to stage a federal takeover, insisting instead that she plans to focus on their "shared priorities."
Daily Telegraph
an hour ago
- Daily Telegraph
US politics live: Trump delivered another Epstein blow
Welcome to our coverage of US politics. A judge has refused the White House's request to unseal papers from the Grand Jury testimony of Jeffrey Epstein. It means the Epstein drama rolls on. Donald Trump is on Monday, US time, expected to take steps to 'federalise' Washington DC. To comes after the US president was sent into a rage after a former member of Elon Musk's 'Department of Government Efficiency' was allegedly car jacked and beaten in the coastal city. Washington, like Canberra, is under federal control. But also like the ACT, DC has been given a high degree of local control. Mr Trump looks sent to try and claw some of the back with suggestion he could put as many a 1000 National Guard troops into the capital. On the weekend, he also warned Washington's homeless population to 'leave immediately'. That's despite there being no suggestion a homeless person was involved in the alleged assault. Meanwhile, it's remain up I the air if Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky will be invited to a planned summit between the US and Russia on Friday which could decide the future of the nation he leads. And Mr Trump has hit out at a Nobel prize winning economist who questioned his tariffs. Read on for more updates. Originally published as US politics live: Trump delivered another Epstein blow
