Cities led by Black women are the first targets of Trump’s political power grab

By

Amanda Becker , Barbara Rodriguez

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Republican President Donald Trump’s continued power grab in the nation’s capital , and his threat to expand his militarized takeover to other Democratic-led cities, is setting up a high-stakes showdown over the country’s democracy that pits him prominently against a familiar political foe: Black women.

On August 11, Trump declared that crime in the District of Columbia was “out of control,” despite violent crime being at a 30-year low , and directed Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Black woman, to hand over control of the city’s police force. Trump then attempted to oust the city’s police commissioner, a Black woman, and replace her with a White man, before backing down after the city threatened