Trump wants to evict homeless from Washington
In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said that he would hold a press conference to address the situation in the US capital. He warned that the crackdown on crime would happen 'very fast.'
'The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,' he wrote, adding that the government would provide housing, 'but FAR from the Capital.' The post was accompanied by images depicting an encampment along a highway on-ramp and people sleeping on the street.
The issue is significant in Washington, DC; about 5,138 homeless people live in the US capital, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Throughout the 2010s, the city reportedly had more than 6,000 unhoused residents.
Last week, Trump criticized the city's crime situation, calling the crime rate 'totally out of control.' He accused local youths and gang members of attacking residents with impunity, warning that if conditions do not improve, he would consider federalizing the city in order to restore order.
'The Criminals, you don't have to move out,' Trump continued. 'We're going to put you in jail where you belong. It's all going to happen very fast, just like the Border,' referring to his crackdown on illegal migrants. 'Be prepared! There will be no 'MR. NICE GUY.' We want our Capital BACK,' he said.
In order to address crime, Trump has ordered a surge of federal officers, citing the assault of a government worker as evidence that the local police had failed.
On Friday, over 120 officers from federal agencies, including the Secret Service, the FBI, and the US Marshals, were deployed. Reuters reported plans to send in hundreds of National Guard troops.
Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Muriel Bowser argued that the city is not experiencing a crime spike. 'We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low,' she told MSNBC on Sunday.
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Once – and if – the summit in Alaska takes place, and hopefully a follow-up meeting in Russia as well, will we finally have left the bloody and dangerous stagnation that was produced by, firstly, the West permitting Kiev to sabotage the 2015 Minsk II Agreement, then the stonewalling of Moscow's last-chance negotiation offer of late 2021, and finally the West's nixing of an almost-peace in April 2022? Or will we be disappointed and face more of the same: an ongoing Western proxy war against Russia through Ukraine, or even worse? One thing is clear, however. An end to the fighting and a halfway decent settlement would be very good news not only for Ukraine but also for the rest of the world, including a NATO-EU Europe that currently is, or at least pretends to be, ready to spoil a quick end to the slaughter next door. Ukrainian and Russian lives would be saved; hopefully for a better future. The still real – if, by comparison with peak Biden, already reduced – danger of escalation into a regional or even global war would be further diminished. And, since this has also been a very costly sanctions war, there would be substantial economic benefits. Ukraine in particular, of course, would have the opportunity to rebuild, especially if its domestic politics took a postwar turn for the better, leaving the ultra-corrupt, authoritarian, and maniacal Zelensky regime behind. Against this background, it is counterintuitive and depressing but not really surprising that many Western 'friends of Ukraine' are greatly disturbed if not positively panicked by such prospects. A Ukraine where men are no longer hunted down by forced-mobilization squads to die or be traumatized – physically and mentally – in a militarily pointless war provoked by a failed Western strategy of using Ukraine to take Russia down a notch? A Ukraine that could actually recover from this devastating if perfectly avoidable catastrophe of hubris and badly misplaced trust? Many of Ukraine's friends-from-hell, especially in NATO-EU Europe, seem to still find it hard to accept such a possibility. Instead of seriously and honestly exploring not only the now inevitable costs of peace but also its enormous benefits, or facing the immense additional human costs of fighting on, they can't stop issuing stale warnings about the obvious fact that those who lose a war – that is, the West and, tragically, Ukraine – cannot expect quite the same outcome as those who win it. Would it not, perhaps, then have been best to avoid that war altogether? What was the reason, for instance, for not closing that famous 'open door' into NATO that has no basis in the NATO treaty and through which Ukraine would never have walked anyway? 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Even after Trump's once impossible electoral comeback, his full-spectrum domination of NATO clients reduced to saying 'daddy,' and his complete humiliation of the EU, for some, it seems, there is no cure for underestimating Trump the politician. They will only have themselves to blame if he and Putin pull off what they can't imagine once again: as decent an end to this war as is still possible, despite much of Europe and the Zelensky regime's obstruction. Yet there is another kind of pessimism about the upcoming summit that is in some ways more puzzling. It usually comes from observers who are well-informed and if not sympathetic to Russia, then at least not blinded by Western propaganda. Its essence is a radical distrust of the US, and its ultimate conclusion is that Moscow, ideally, should not even try to negotiate with Washington. 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If Moscow's policy were one of easily accommodating the new administration under Trump, then it would long ago have concluded a disadvantageous agreement. But it has not. In reality, the upcoming summit may mark the point at which both sides, the US and Russia, understand that only serious negotiations based on the realities on the ground and detached from superficial ideological mantras can possibly succeed. And if that should not be the case, then they will fail and the war will continue. Finally, there is a fundamental difference between caution and fear. Caution enables, fear paralyzes. Precisely because the traditional challenges of negotiating with the US are so clear, there is no reason to shy away from contact. The challenge is to transform caution into practically applicable conditions. Will the US, for instance, continue to share intelligence with Ukraine, directly or indirectly (through its European clients)? What about US officers – whether through NATO or otherwise – and their participation in the war against Russia? And the spies? Can and will Trump tell the CIA to drop its Ukrainian cut-outs and stop contributing to attacks on and inside Russia? If the US really intends to keep selling weapons to Europe so that they can then be handed on to Ukraine, how can that be squared with trying to bring about peace? It is possible that once tested by such questions (and a lot of them), the American side will expose its lack of commitment. Yet no one can rule out that a more useful outcome might ensue. In fact, the summit plan itself may be a sign that some of these issues have been broached already. In such a situation, the rational approach is to try, while keeping up one's guard. Given its post-Soviet experiences and how it has processed them (among other things by striking back militarily), there is no reason to believe that the Russian leadership is not capable of pursuing such a strategy. Those eager to see Russia hold its own against the West and in particular the US should consider that it is Moscow that defines Russian national interest. Depending on a concrete analysis of specific circumstances at this or a future moment, even an imperfect agreement made with a US that cannot be trusted may serve these interests. And those who rightly favor multipolarity should recall that a Russia which keeps fighting in a Ukraine War handed over to the Europeans cannot play the same international role as one that is finally free of that burden.
