On August 11, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 800 National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily assumed control of the city’s police department, in a rare display of presidential authority in the nation’s capital.
Bypassing the city’s elected officials, the move reflected Trump’s second-term style, marked by an aggressive use of executive power that has few modern parallels and runs counter to long-standing political norms. He framed the decision as an effort to “rescue” Washington from what he described as a surge in lawlessness, even though data shows violent crime spiked in 2023 but has been falling sharply in recent months.
This move is not unprecedented. Trump has previously called in the National Guard to quell "civil unrest" during recent protests in Los Angeles, and the nation has a long history of the use of the tactic to suppress dissent.
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