Trump Keeps Crossing Lines - Until It Blows Up

As if Washington, D.C., were a parade-ready training ground and not the capital of a federal democracy, the White House is shifting the axis of power ever more toward the executive. The latest signal: West Virginia is sending hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington. The written proof is on the table. Under the National Guard letterhead it states unambiguously: "The West Virginia National Guard supports President Trump's initiative to make D.C. safe and beautiful." It further states that the mission includes "the provision of mission-critical equipment, specialized training, and approximately 300 to 400 skilled personnel as directed." This is not symbolism - it is personnel, equipment, and chains of command. Governor Patrick Morrisey sets the tempo: "West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump to bring pride and beauty back to our nation's capital." It sounds as if D.C. were a recalcitrant outlying site that needs to be "brought into line." In parallel, the federal government has for the first time pulled a provision of the 1970s Home Rule Act to intervene in the leadership of the city police - a taboo breach in a city whose self-government is only on loan to begin with. After legal pushback, the order is hastily rewritten: The "emergency" commissioner favored by the Department of Justice is now styled as a "designee" who may issue instructions to the mayor that the attorney general deems "necessary and appropriate."

The backdrop looks like something out of a security-state manual. Officers and agents from an entire alphabet soup visibly patrol the streets - from the Diplomatic Security Service to federal criminal investigators to transit police and U.S. Marshals. On top of that, around 800 National Guard troops under the banner of the "Task Force for a Safe and Beautiful D.C." At the same time, homeless encampments are being cleared - from Foggy Bottom to near the Kennedy Center. The president had announced that the homeless would be moved "far away from the capital." That does not sound like social policy but like displacement. The military leadership in West Virginia is also committing itself. Major General Jim Seward says: "This initiative aligns with our values of service and dedication to our communities." In practice, that means that soldiers from one state are carrying out order policy in the heart of the nation - while an elected city leadership is wedged between legal emergency brakes and political humiliations. Mayor Muriel Bowser tries to reassure and at the same time pushes back against the creeping withdrawal of self-government: "If we stick together, we'll get through this ... we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy - even when we don't have full access to it." It would be hard to put it more elegantly that D.C., a democratic unfinished project, is being deliberately exploited right now.

This maneuver follows a simple logic: stretch jurisdictions, replace consent, create facts on the ground. The press release from West Virginia sets the tone for it - the state stands "ready to support partners in the National Capital Region." But the partners here are not the city's residents, they are the executive's apparatuses. Federalism is not conceived as balance but as an extension of reach. Anyone who thinks this is mere muscle-flexing underestimates the shift. Once the National Guard, federal agencies, and a politicized judiciary saw together at the guardrail of self-government, "security" becomes a vehicle for the exercise of power. Today "safe and beautiful," tomorrow "orderly and efficient," the day after "necessary and unavoidable." The path is not an administrative act - it is a dam break in stages. America's capital has always been a democratic half-finished product. Seldom, however, has this imperfection been exploited so deliberately as now: a president who sees the city as stage and spoil, a governor who sends guardsmen, a justice apparatus that redraws lines of command. This is how power crosses one boundary after another - until the boundary strikes back. And when that moment comes, no one will be able to say the warning signs were not in black and white. They were there in a press release that promised to make Washington "safe and beautiful" - and showed how easily both can become a pretext.

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