Trump's takeover of D.C.'s police force isn't just another diversion from Jeffrey Epstein

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

It can be tempting to view President Donald Trump's meandering, deeply dishonest press conference on Monday as just the latest 'hey-look-a-squirrel!' distraction meant to divert the nation's attention from his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein matter.
Flanked by members of his cabinet, Trump invoked Section 743 of the Home Rule Charter, which permits him to send in the National Guard for a fixed period, and announced federal troops would be seizing control of the Washington, D.C., police force to address what he called a 'crime emergency.'
Like many in his party, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., saw an ulterior motive for Monday's action.
'In another transparent ploy to distract America from his coverup of the Epstein file, Donald Trump now wants to militarize the District of Columbia,' Raskin said in a written statement, 'to attack crime and clean up graffiti in the capital city despite the fact that crime is at a 30-year low in Washington and graffiti seems to be pretty sparse.'
Whether intentionally or not, Trump has indeed mastered the art of diversion. During his press conference, for instance, he bounced from D.C. crime to his forthcoming summit with Vladimir Putin, to tariffs on Chinese imports, to transgender athletes, to his own real estate experience. But his longstanding desire to deploy federal troops in blue state cities to bend them to his will should not be discounted as mere sleight of hand.
'Local 'youths' and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released. They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it's going to happen now!' Trump explained in a comically hyperbolic post on Truth Social last Tuesday, explaining his rationale, adding, 'The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs.'
That recent victim was a 19-year-old Department of Government Efficiency employee, in case you were wondering what crime got Trump out of the golf cart this morning. To be clear, we're all against these ugly crimes, of course, and under the D.C. charter, sending in the National Guard isn't illegal. It's just ridiculously performative and profoundly unnecessary when you stop to realize that Justice Department data backs Raskin's assertion that crime in the district has hit a 30-year low,
Data, of course, is beside the point for Trump. Just as his administration is busily rewriting federal scientific assessments that contradict Trump's view that climate change is a 'hoax,' declining violent crime rates in liberal-run cities are an inconvenient truth that doesn't square with his vision of a Washington that has been 'taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.'
Trump's not-at-all hidden fantasy has been to become, to be charitable, something of an authoritarian. And the D.C. deployment is yet another dictatorship cosplay warm-up exercise.
Under the Home Rule Charter, Trump's order expires in 30 days, but it remains to be seen whether he'll abide by it. After all, in apparent violation of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, 250 National Guard troops he deployed are languishing around Los Angeles.
Of course, Trump's newfound enthusiasm for mobilizing the Guard is in stark contrast to his delay in doing so on Jan. 6, 2021, the same day he suggested Vice President Mike Pence deserved assassination by the mob Trump had summoned to block the transfer of power.
But that was then.
'We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,' he said. 'We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore there.'
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on X that 'Trump's raw authoritarian power grab in DC is part of a growing national crisis … He's playing dictator in our nation's capital as a dress rehearsal as he pushes democracy to the brink.'
As his cabinet minions looked on, knowing they were props in yet another Trump late-night comedy fodder bit, Attorney General Pam Bondi dutifully executed Dear Leader's orders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seemed to relish the expanded marching orders.
Only FBI Director Kash Patel briefly seemed to go off-script when he correctly noted that murder rates in the U.S. 'are plummeting.'
Facts may not matter in the White House briefing room, but they could still matter in court. California's lawsuit against the Los Angeles troop deployment proceeded in San Francisco on Monday, where the state is arguing that the Trump administration doesn't have the right 'to execute or assist in the execution of federal law or any civilian law enforcement functions by any federal agent or officer.'
During her own Monday press conference, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser struck a low-key response to the takeover of her police department, calling the action 'unsettling.'
Oh, it's unsettling all right, just as it was in L.A, and this shock-and-awe arrival of U.S. troops could soon be coming to a blue state city near you.
As Trump's long-winded presser drew to a close, some reporters shouted out questions about Epstein. By then, the president was already on his way out of the briefing room.