Only Trump could turn a quick drive to a golf course into federal policy. Somewhere between the White House and his next tee time, Trump spotted a few tents with human beings living in them and decided the capital's "cleanliness" was under attack. Within minutes, his "Truth" Social thumbs were at his customary dirty work. "The Homeless must move out, IMMEDIATELY," Trump ranted, "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital."
This latest intolerant fascism is unfolding in a year when violent crime in Washington DC is down 26% from last year, and 35% from 2023. But why let hard numbers get in the way of a good fear-mongering fairy tale? To Trump, a couple of tents is Armageddon, and red meat to his MAGA cult.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, understandably vexed, and pointed out that the city's crime numbers are at historic lows. Trump pretended he didn't hear her, then promised a Monday news conference that will "stop violent crime" and be about "Cleanliness," while capitalising random nouns.
There are no details in Trump's heartless plan, of course. That would require actual work, a thing Trump is allergic to. These days everything is a distraction. The Trump "administration" is drowning in Epstein.
Trump is overruling the Washington DC Home Rule Act, the law that lets residents elect their own mayor and council. Local democracy is expendable if it ruins the view from Trump's limo window.
The Free DC movement has already scheduled protests for Monday. This isn't about tents. It's about control, and distracting his base. It's about using the most vulnerable, voiceless people in the city as props in a grotesque theatre production. For Trump, "beauty" means erasing poverty instead of solving it.
The normalization of cruelty, the petty vandalism of democracy and the public shaming of the poor is the point. Trump thinks he can bulldoze Washington DC's soul to match the manicured fairways of his shitty little golf motels, as Jeff Tiedrich puts it. We've seen this movie before. We know already know how it ends.