President Donald Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and assume control of the city’s police force.
Was this announcement a sign of creeping authoritarianism? A legitimate measure to combat crime in the nation’s capital city? Or just a publicity stunt? Newsweek contributors David Faris and Mark Davis debate:
David Faris:
Deploying the National Guard to Washington D.C. is an unconscionable abuse of federal power and another worrisome signpost on our road to autocracy. Using the military to bring big, blue cities to heel, exactly as “alarmists” predicted during the 2024 campaign, isn’t about a crisis in D.C.—violent crime is actually at a 30-year low. President Trump is, once again, testing the limits of his power, hoping to intimidate other cities into submission to his every vengeful whim by making the once unimaginable—an American tyrant ordering a military occupation of our own capital—a terrifying reality.
Mark Davis:
In another masterstroke of messaging and practicality, President Trump has taken aim at crime in America’s capital city, vowing to use the resources under his control to “make Washington safe again.” No big city is ever safe enough, and there are cities with worse crime problems than D.C., but this is the city where Trump lives, as do countless politicians and media types who will criticize him while quietly enjoying a city with less violent crime. Democratic mayors and governors have done too little; Trump will act, and residents of every political stripe will benefit.
Faris:
There is nothing practical about deploying an expensive military force when crime is already in freefall. If President Trump actually cared about the city he escapes every weekend to go golfing, he would empower it with statehood or voting representation in Congress, not occupy it with troops.
Davis:
Washington residents—and I know plenty—may beg to differ on the “crime in freefall” observation. Last year provided a momentary breather by some measures, but this decade’s crime numbers have spiked over the 2010s. Whatever current levels are, they will decrease with Trump’s D.C. strategy, a goal that should be appreciated by all.
Faris:
I doubt that even one in ten Washingtonians would approve of deploying the military to combat a fabricated crime crisis. Trump did not consult with residents and doesn’t care what they think. This is about dictatorial pageantry, a strongman applying the boot to places he believes are full of domestic enemies.
Davis:
My kingdom for a reliable flash poll, which I believe would show surprising support. But even if D.C. is filed with voters with a taste for high-crime Democratic governance as in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and elsewhere, that doesn’t mean Trump has to agree. And perhaps viewing murderers and carjackers as domestic enemies will actually dissuade those behaviors.
Faris:
It’s telling that the cities Republicans bring up in these conversations are always in blue states, as if there aren’t problems in Dallas or St. Louis, both of which are ruled by Republican-dominated state governments and policies. Why isn’t the president threatening to send the National Guard to these cities?
Davis:
There are problems in every large city. The worst are the ones saddled with unchecked Democratic governance. I’m sure the president would love to send the National Guard into Chicago, but cities in both blue and red states are not under his direct authority. Washington is, and its residents are about to benefit from it.
Faris:
The American far right fears and loathes cities, and President Trump has long publicly fantasized about unleashing the military on them. A sanitized, terrorized capital city, with uniformed soldiers brandishing assault rifles on street corners, has been a hallmark of every authoritarian society I’ve visited. The militarization of Washington will not have any lasting effects on violent crime. But it’s not intended to. It will only clarify President Trump’s contempt for American democracy and his endless need to humiliate people he sees not as equal citizens but as disloyal subjects. Our depressing slide into sclerotic autocracy continues.
Davis:
In the final analysis, this comes down to whether safer streets are good. It is hard to fathom an argument to the contrary. The objections seem ginned up from the usual complaint that “Trump wants it, so it’s bad.” Critics tried that with borders and it failed. They said tariffs would sink us into depression. Hasn’t happened, and it won’t. Is there an element of political theater to this D.C. crime strategy? Sure, but it’s also sound policy of the type that shows a president in touch with a concern real people have, which is served him well, and also the nation.
David Faris is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. His writing has appeared in Slate, The Week, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Washington Monthly, and more. You can find him on Twitter @davidmfaris and Bluesky @davidfaris.bsky.social.
Mark Davis is a syndicated talk show host for the Salem Media Group on 660AM The Answer in Dallas-Ft. Worth, and a columnist for the Dallas Morning News and Townhall.
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.
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