Trump Attacking D.C. Is Not A Distraction
Especially if you live in D.C. or any of the other cities he is targeting
As I type this there are National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington D.C. for no good reason at all. Our president wants to see how Americans generally feel about seeing Americans live under martial law. Because our president is lazy (at the very least, intellectually so), he is trying out “the martial law” near where he lives. You know how the expression goes. Think (fascist) globally. Act (fascist) locally. Ever the (failed) business man, Donald Trump is doing what would be called in business “a soft opening” of his authoritarian reign. It’s kind of like when a Broadway musical does a run in Berkeley to work the kinks out before New York City. It is now our job to make sure that Trump’s attempt at turning the United States of America into the Trump Reich stays kinky.
This past Monday, Trump held a press conference announcing that he was deploying 800 National Guard soldiers to Washington D.C. In addition to that nightmare, Trump added that he was talking over control of the Washington D.C. police department, citing Section 740 of D.C.'s Home Rule Act. Not only has nothing happened in D.C. that would justify a president (at least not president in his right mind) taking it over, but, as has been widely reported, D.C. is at a 30-year low for violent crime. That low crime rate is why upwardly mobile white people have felt so comfortable moving to D.C. over the last 30 years. In fact, the big problem in D.C. isn’t crime. It’s gentrification making the city unaffordable for the Black population. That’s a real problem for a city that was once so identified with Black folks that its nickname was “Chocolate City." When I was there in 2018 filming United Shades of America, Black residents laughed and sighed when I brought up D.C.’s old nickname. That moniker symbolized how Black, beautiful, and successful the city was. While there is still a proud Black population in D.C., these days D.C. is more like “Chocolate Chip City.” While D.C. certainly has crime, Trump’s description at Monday’s press conference doesn’t jibe with reality in any way. Every real estate expert will tell you that upwardly mobile white people don’t migrate to cities that, according to Trump at his press conference, have been "taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals."
Of course it’s not enough for Trump to send in the National Guard. He wants to see skulls cracked live on television.
“I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington DC. And they're going to be allowed to do their job properly.”
- Donald Trump, Monday, August 11
The emphasis is mine, but we all know what Trump means when he refers to law enforcement doing their job “properly.” Advocating for police brutality—and brutality in general—was practically a tentpole of both of his winning presidential campaigns. It doesn’t matter to Trump if the brutality happens to law-breakers or innocents. Like a junkie, Trump just has to have it!
We all know that truth doesn’t matter with Trump. If D.C. was overrun with gangs and crime then you would think that the people of D.C. would welcome Trump, but make no mistake, D.C. is not welcoming Trump’s “help.” Despite Trump declaring at his press conference that, “this is Liberation Day in D.C.,” anti-Trump protests are out in force in D.C. Trump doesn’t actually care about D.C. He was just selling his bullshit to Trump America: the red states featuring small towns and rural communities. These are the people who only “learn” about America’s major cities from Fox News and the Fox News progeny. Sadly, these people are extremely soft targets for Trump’s trademarked brand of bullshit. If they ever even go to D.C., they don’t leave Capitol Hill. After their vacation, they return to their red state to talk about the homeless person they saw or the piece of trash they saw in the streets. They denote these things as indicators of a Democrat-run city and not late stage capitalism in free fall across the nation.
While the footage of federal troops in D.C. is leading the news, less discussed is the fact that in the middle of Trump’s word salad on Monday, Trump also mentioned other cities that he’s added to his wishlist for illegal invasions.
"We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York [City] has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore there. They're so far gone.”
- Donald Trump. Monday, August 11
What connects all these cities? They are Black and blue and Black again. They are all cities with large Black populations in reliably blue states, and they all have Black mayors. That’s why Trump didn’t mention liberal bubbles like Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington–too white. Trump also didn’t mention Kansas City and its (BLACK!) mayor Quinton Lucas, because the state of Missouri is reliably red at thsi point. In Trump’s mind everything is the fault of Democrats and Black and Brown people. Admittedly, one of the Black mayors that was in his list, New York City’s Eric Adams, would probably drink Trump’s dirty bathwater if Trump slightly indicated he would enjoy that. But I’m pretty sure that New York City made the list, not because of who their mayor is now, but who is likely to be their next mayor.
Z. Kwame Mamdani.
(He sounds more like a Black guy that way.)
The rest of the mayors on Trump’s Black & blue hit list are fierce anti-Trump politicians whose cities are also not experiencing the “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse” that Trump lied about in D.C. Just up the road from D.C. in Baltimore, Maryland, Mayor Brandon Scott is being celebrated for the drop in crime in Baltimore since he was elected. After Trump’s baseless accusations, Scott responded on behalf of Baltimore, and even more importantly, Scott responded on behalf of The United States of America:
“Baltimore is the safest it’s been in over 50 years. Homicides are down 28% this year alone, reaching the lowest level of any year on record. We still have real work to do to build on this progress, but that work starts and ends here in Baltimore, with the local, state and federal partners who have gotten us this far.
It’s not just Baltimore. Violent crime is at historic lows in cities across the country under the leadership of mayors who have brought together partners from law enforcement, the legal system and communities to reduce violence. The president could learn a lot about leadership from them.”
That second quote is key. I have spent most of my life traveling America in one capacity or another, as a kid whose mom liked to move and whose dad lived in Alabama, as stand-up comedian on the road, and as the host of a show whose premise was to travel America. Because I have spent that much time traveling this country, I can definitely say this. EVERYWHERE IN AMERICA HAS PROBLEMS. Everywhere has crime and/or lack of jobs and/or public schools in need of resources and/or a politician (or two) who is thinking more about himself than about his constituents. Everywhere has bad roads. Everywhere has an area that used to be bustling and now has closed businesses with windows filled with “FOR LEASE” signs. I’ve seen it in Oakland. I’ve seen it in Oklahoma. The difference between Oakland and Oklahoma is that Trump and the right have created a dynamic wherein many Oklahomans are invested in Oakland sucking so that those Oklahomans don’t have to feel bad about the level of suckage they are dealing with.
I’m not just making this up. Earlier this year, I had an event in Oklahoma. The event was great. I can’t wait to go back to Tulsa and OKC in November to do stand-up comedy. But in the car on the way to the event, I had a driver who asked where I was from. I took a silent breath, preparing for what was coming when I answered but also ready to engage
Me: Oakland, California.
Her: A stream of words that let me know that she wasn’t thinking of the same Oakland that I was thinking of when I said “Oakland.”
She wasn’t thinking of how beautiful Lake Merritt is on the weekends when it is packed with people and vendors. She didn't think of the Saturday farmer’s market near Grand Lake Theater. She wasn’t even thinking of the legendary Grand Lake Theater–it has a pipe organ that they play on big show nights– where I have seen Sinners with my wife, Pixar movies with my kids, and where I screened the reproductive justice episode of United Shades of America. She wasn’t thinking about all the great food in Oakland’s Chinatown. She wasn’t thinking about how cool it is to be in a city that still has Black Panther Party members walking the street, like my friend Ericka Huggins. She wasn’t thinking about Destiny Arts Center a Black- and Brown-led dance organization where my mom dances as a part of the elders project. She wasn’t thinking of the Oakland Museum of California where I just attended a pro-immigration event called No immigrants No Spice. She was thinking “OaklandSanFranciscoDoomLoopLiberalHellscape.” She didn’t say all that, but I could tell. Meanwhile, I was thinking:
“It’s funny that you think where I live is bad when all you know is the lies that your TV and social media told you. Meanwhile, I have actually been to where you live. Aside from the fact that I could get a mansion for $150, I would never think about living here. No offense intended… Ok, maybe a little bit of offense intended.”
Some people say that Trump taking control over the D.C. police and sending federal troops is just a distraction. They say this is a way for Trump to get our attention away from his relationship with his good friend Jeffrey Epstein. In response, I say THERE ARE FEDERAL TROOPS IN WASHINGTON D.C. AND DONALD TRUMP HAS TAKEN CONTROL OVER THE POLICE! AND HE IS THREATENING TO DO THIS IN OTHER CITIES!!!
Yes, Trump can flood the zone with news and nonsense in order to attempt to distract from his bad acts, but we can’t ignore the fact that Trump is also COMMITTING MORE BAD ACTS! Don’t act like the distraction can’t be as bad or worse than the thing it is trying to distract us from.
Also, let’s not pretend that Trump hasn’t wanted martial law in America for a long time. Remember in his first term when he used the United States Customs and Border Patrol’s “100 mile rule” as a way to send border patrol cops into cities that weren’t having any border issues. The cities were just having issues with white supremacy. They were having Black Lives Matter protests. Using Trump’s own words from Monday’s press conference, Trump and his goons created “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse” across America in 2020. Border patrol officers were going after anyone who was in their way and anyone who didn’t obey their illegal orders. They kidnapped people off the streets in unmarked vans with no due process. (Sounds like it was the blueprint for what I.C.E. is doing right now.) Trump taking over the D.C. police force and sending the National Guard into the streets of D.C. isn’t a distraction. It is an escalation of a plan already in place. Worst of all, in D.C., Trump is targeting the most vulnerable citizens.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we're not going to let it happen anymore.” - Donald Trump, Monday, August 11
Let’s get one thing absolutely clear, Donald Trump is a demon who has come to earth to test our true desire for a brighter day. Trump is imagining “violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals” that simply don’t exist. Every city has crime. Every city has problems that communities in these cities are working to solve, often without enough resources from their local government. But no city in America lives up to Trump’s post-apocalyptic fantasy. At least, no city lives up to that yet. Although, Trump is working hard to make that fantasy a reality. By throwing unhoused people into his fantasy of America as Michael Jackson's “Thriller” video, he is casting the unhoused as evil and not as victims of American capitalism.
To call Trump an authoritarian is accurate but insufficient. Trump is a weak-minded mascot for the final stage of the decline of the United States of America. If only Trump’s mother had actually liked him or if Trump’s daddy had ever told him that he loved him, we might not all be caught up in his delusions of pander. Trump panders to his base and his base instincts and his goal will destroy this country in the process, if we don’t all stand up and say, “NO!”
If we don’t stand up NOW then trust and believe that the “distraction” is coming to your town or a town near YOU.
Here is what YOU can do!
Let's push for Washington D.C. statehood. Much of what Trump is able to do in D.C. is because D.C. is not a state, so the federal government can (and historically has) interfered with how D.C. wants to govern itself. The population of D.C. is bigger than Wyoming. They pay more in taxes than several states. Learn more about the movement for D.C. statehood. The best thing you can do now is elevate the movement and spread the word so this can become the national issue that it deserves to be.
Call your congress folks and senators and demand that they tell Trump to pull out of D.C. It’s easy to do. Watch this super short video to learn how.
Connect with local activists in your town to prepare for the day when he invades other American cities. If you don’t know where to go, I’d start with finding out if there is a local chapter of Indivisible near you.
Who’s with me?
Who’s With Me? in Los Angeles!
I'm coming to Largo at The Coronet in Los Angeles on October 3. Get those tickets here. The whole tour is below.
Kamau - Once again, you nailed it. Trump is coming for my city soon - I can feel it. I’m surprised he hasn’t done it already - watch out Portland, OR. Trump is a deadly cocktail of racism, end-stage capitalism, narcissism, stupidity, greed & corruption. Thank you, & please keep up the good work, and please keep coming to Portland.
May I quote your statement above on a poster? “Let’s get one thing absolutely clear, Donald Trump is a demon who has come to Earth to test our true desire for a brighter day.” W. Kamau Bell. To me it truly sums up the situation. Thank you for your brilliance and energy.