ANALYSIS:

President Donald Trump’s decision to seize control of Washington, D.C.’s police force and deploy National Guard troops is not about fighting crime — it’s about weaponizing fear, distorting facts, and sending a racist dog whistle aimed squarely at a majority-Black city and its Black female mayor.

On Monday, Trump declared “liberation day in D.C.,” vowing to “wipe out crime, savagery, filth and scum” in the capital. The language was as inflammatory as it was disconnected from reality. His own Justice Department’s data shows that in 2024, violent crime in D.C. fell 35% from the year before, hitting a 30-year low. Homicides dropped 32%, robberies 39%, armed carjackings 53%, and assaults with a dangerous weapon 27%. Even now, D.C. police report violent crime is down another 26% fr

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