Trump’s DC rhetoric echoes historical past of racist narratives

By Matt Brown | Related Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has taken management of D.C.’s regulation enforcement and ordered Nationwide Guard troops to deploy onto the streets of the nation’s capital, arguing the extraordinary strikes are essential to curb an pressing public security disaster.

At the same time as district officers questioned the claims underlying his emergency declaration, the Republican president promised a “historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” His rhetoric echoed that utilized by conservatives going again many years who’ve denounced cities, particularly these with majority non-white populations or led by progressives, as lawless or crime-ridden and in want of outdoor intervention.

“This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump promised Monday.

Trump’s motion echoes uncomfortable historic chapters

As D.C. the Nationwide Guard arrived at their headquarters Tuesday, for a lot of residents, the prospect of federal troops surging into neighborhoods represented an alarming violation of native company. To some, it echoes uncomfortable historic chapters when politicians used language to color traditionally or predominantly Black cities and neighborhoods with racist narratives to form public opinion and justify aggressive police motion.

April Goggans, a longtime D.C. resident and grassroots organizer, stated she was not shocked by Trump’s actions. Communities had been making ready for a possible federal crackdown in D.C. because the summer season of 2020, when Trump deployed troops throughout racial justice protests after the homicide of George Floyd.

“We have to be vigilant,” stated Goggans, who has coordinated native protests for almost a decade. She worries about what a surge in regulation enforcement may imply for residents’ freedoms.

“Regardless of where you fall on the political scale, understand that this could be you, your children, your grandmother, your co-worker who are brutalized or have certain rights violated,” she stated.

Different residents reacted with combined emotions to Trump’s govt order. Crime and homelessness has been a high concern for residents in recent times, however opinions on learn how to remedy the difficulty fluctuate. And only a few residents take Trump’s catastrophic view of life in D.C.

“I think Trump’s trying to help people, some people,” stated Melvin Brown, a D.C. resident. “But as far as (him) trying to get (the) homeless out of this city, that ain’t going to work.”

“It’s like a band-aid to a gunshot wound,” stated Melissa Velasquez, a commuter into D.C. “I feel like there’s been an increase of racial profiling and stuff, and so it’s concerning for individuals who are worried about how they might be perceived as they go about their day-to-day lives.”

Uncertainty raises alarms

In response to White Home officers, troops will probably be deployed to guard federal property and facilitate a secure setting for regulation enforcement to make arrests. The Trump administration believes the extremely seen presence of regulation enforcement will deter violent crime. It’s unclear how the administration defines offering a secure setting for regulation enforcement to conduct arrests, elevating alarm bells for some advocates.

“The president foreshadowed that if these heavy-handed tactics take root here, they will be rolled out to other majority-Black and Brown cities, like Chicago, Oakland and Baltimore, across the country,” stated Monica Hopkins, govt director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s D.C. chapter.

“We’ve seen before how federal control of the D.C. National Guard and police can lead to abuse, intimidation and civil rights violations — from military helicopters swooping over peaceful racial justice protesters in 2020 to the unchecked conduct of federal officers who remain shielded from full accountability,” Hopkins stated.

A historical past of denigrating language

Conservatives have for generations used denigrating language to explain the situation of main cities and known as for larger regulation enforcement, usually in response to altering demographics in these cities pushed by nonwhite populations relocating seeking work or security from racial discrimination and state violence. Republicans have known as for larger police crackdowns in cities since at the least the 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles.

President Richard Nixon received the White Home in 1968 after campaigning on a “law and order” agenda to enchantment to white voters in northern cities alongside overtures to white Southerners as a part of his “Southern Strategy.” Ronald Reagan equally received each his presidential elections after campaigning closely on regulation and order politics. Politicians, together with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former President Invoice Clinton have cited the necessity to tamp down crime as a purpose to grab energy from liberal cities for many years.

Trump threatened to “take over” and “beautify” D.C. on the marketing campaign path and claimed it was “a nightmare of murder and crime.” He additionally argued town was “horribly run” and stated his crew supposed “to take it away from the mayor.” Trump on Monday repeated previous feedback about among the nation’s largest cities, together with Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland and his hometown of New York Metropolis. All are at the moment run by Black mayors.

“You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities in a very bad, New York is a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don’t even mention that anymore. They’re so far gone. We’re not going to let it happen,” he stated.

Civil rights advocates see the rhetoric as a part of a broader political technique.

“It’s a playbook he’s used in the past,” stated Maya Wiley, CEO of the Management Convention on Civil and Human Rights.

Trump’s rhetoric “paints a picture that crime is out of control, even when it is not true, then blames the policies of Democratic lawmakers that are reform- and public safety-minded, and then claims that you have to step in and violate people’s rights or demand that reforms be reversed,” Wiley stated.

She added that the playbook has particular efficiency in D.C. as a result of native regulation enforcement could be immediately positioned below federal management, an influence Trump invoked in his announcement.

Leaders name the order an unjustified distraction

Trump’s actions in Washington and feedback about different main cities despatched shock waves throughout the nation, as different leaders put together to answer potential federal motion.

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stated in a press release that Trump’s plan “lacks seriousness and is deeply dangerous” and pointed to a 30-year-low crime fee in Baltimore as a purpose the administration ought to seek the advice of native leaders quite than antagonize them. In Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee known as Trump’s characterization of town “fearmongering.”

Civil rights leaders have denounced Trump’s motion in D.C. as an unjustified distraction.

“This president campaigned on ‘law and order,’ but he is the president of chaos and corruption,” stated NAACP President Derrick Johnson. “There’s no emergency in D.C., so why would he deploy the National Guard? To distract us from his alleged inclusion in the Epstein files? To rid the city of unhoused people? D.C. has the right to govern itself. It doesn’t need this federal coup.”

Related Press author River Zhang contributed reporting.

Initially Revealed: August 12, 2025 at 8:04 PM PDT