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Trump to Patrol D.C. Streets with National Guard

August 21, 2025 at 1:37 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump said he plans to go out on patrol with the Metropolitan Police Department and National Guard troops around Washington, D.C., on Thursday night amid a federal crackdown on crime, The Hill reports.

Said Trump: “I’m going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police and with the military, of course. So we’re going to do a job.”

ABC News: Trump says he will go out with police, military to patrol DC Thursday night.

Filed Under: City Hall

Trump Portrays Cities as Chaotic Dystopias

August 21, 2025 at 11:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “As Trump ramps up the military presence in Washington — and hints that he may move to take over other cities — his crackdown punctuates a frequent Republican message that American cities embody chaos, lawlessness and immorality, despite widespread recent drops in violent crime.”

“With cities increasingly liberal and rural stretches ever more conservative, Republicans have a growing incentive to attack urban areas as the epitome of all that is wrong with America.”

Filed Under: City Hall

Vance Suggests Troops Could Be Sent to Other Cities

August 20, 2025 at 4:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Vice President JD Vance and other Trump administration officials suggested Wednesday that the federal takeover of policing in D.C. could serve as a test case for other cities across the country as they tried to amplify the issue,” the Washington Post reports.

Filed Under: City Hall


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D.C. Residents Oppose Trump’s Police Takeover

August 20, 2025 at 1:08 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Roughly 8 in 10​​ Washington, DC, residents oppose President Trump ordering the federal government to take control of the city’s police department as well as his deployment of the National Guard and FBI to patrol the city, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll finds.

Filed Under: City Hall

Most Voters Oppose Trump’s Takeover of D.C. Police

August 20, 2025 at 8:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A slim majority — 51% — of likely voters nationally oppose President Trump’s takeover of the Washington, DC, police force, according to a new Data for Progress survey.

Filed Under: City Hall

Todd Blanche Personally Ordered Arrest of Mayor

August 19, 2025 at 5:25 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “The federal officer who arrested the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city outside an immigration detention center in May suggested that he was making the arrest at the direction of the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche, according to law enforcement body camera footage described in a new court filing.”

Filed Under: City Hall

How Does Trump’s Federal Takeover End?

August 19, 2025 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

David Graham: “What exactly is their mission and training, though? National Guard troops prepare for civil unrest, which is why they’re frequently called up when major protests break out. But D.C. isn’t seeing big demonstrations—certainly not before Trump’s takeover, and not really since, either, despite some smaller protests by residents.”

“As for the mission, that’s even more obscure. Last Monday, Trump said that the plan was to “liberate” D.C. from crime. Depending on who you believe, the takeover was triggered by the president’s desire to change the subject away from Jeffrey Epstein, a reflexive reaction to a Fox News segment about D.C., or anger about an attempted carjacking involving a former DOGE staffer. But Trump cited no acute emergency, and he hasn’t explained what the goal is. With no stated objective, there can be no end point. (It can’t be that crime ceases to exist, an impossible goal.) That raises the scary prospect that it could just go on forever—or slide into martial law around the country.”

Filed Under: City Hall

Red States Send National Guard Troops to D.C.

August 18, 2025 at 7:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The governors of Mississippi and Louisiana said on Monday that they would deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, joining three other Republican-led states that have recently heeded President Trump’s request to fill the nation’s capital with troops,” the New York Times reports.

“The five states are collectively sending about 1,000 troops to Washington, where there are already 800 deployed troops from the D.C. National Guard, which the president can call out directly.”

Filed Under: City Hall

MAGA Eager for D.C. Patrols to Spread to Other Cities

August 18, 2025 at 6:18 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s MAGA movement sees his D.C. crackdown as being about more than just crime — it’s an opportunity to deal another setback to liberals by expanding the movement in urban areas,” Axios reports.

“Despite the protests over Trump’s stunning show of force on D.C.’s streets, MAGA’s most vocal voices believe that if the anti-crime push is successful — and Trump is certain to declare it so — it could win converts in cities and help expand the movement’s rural base.”

Playbook: “Right-wing social media is savoring clips of law enforcement taking action in the capital.”

Filed Under: City Hall

Trump Squeezes Big Blue Cities

August 18, 2025 at 5:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ron Brownstein: “President Donald Trump is moving systematically to tighten his grip on Democratic-leaning big cities — the geographic center of resistance to his agenda — by undermining their autonomy and eroding their political strength.”

“Those militant goals are the common thread that links the high-profile initiatives Trump has launched in recent days to seize control of law enforcement in Washington, DC; pressure red states to draw new congressional district lines; and potentially pursue an unprecedented ‘redo’ of the 2020 census.”

“These new efforts compound the pressure Trump is already placing on major cities with an agenda that includes aggressive immigration enforcement; cuts in federal research funding to universities central to the economy of many large metros; and threats to rescind federal funding for jurisdictions that resist his demands to impose conservative policies on immigration, education, homelessness and policing.”

Filed Under: City Hall

Federal Grand Jury Indicts New Orleans Mayor

August 15, 2025 at 2:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment Friday of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, capping a years-long corruption investigation that had overshadowed the mayor’s second term,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

“The criminal charges — an apparent result of the wide-ranging probe into Cantrell’s spending, political activities and other alleged acts — mark a stunning low point for the Democratic mayor, a former neighborhood organizer who rose eight years ago from a seat on the City Council to New Orleans’ top office. Her ascent shocked the city’s political class and epitomized changes that swept New Orleans politics following Hurricane Katrina.”

Filed Under: City Hall, Corruption

Trump Wants to Set Up Nationwide Traffic Stops

August 15, 2025 at 7:04 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump said on Thursday that a next step for nationwide immigration enforcement would be identifying undocumented immigrants during traffic stops,” Axios reports.

“The suggestion comes after Trump temporarily took control of Washington, D.C.’s police department and ordered the National Guard and FBI to aid law enforcement despite crime in the city being at a 30-year low.”

Said Trump: “That’s a great step, if they’re doing that. Yeah, I think that’s going to happen all over the country. We want to stop crime.”

Filed Under: City Hall, Immigration

D.C.’s Highest Crime Areas Have Yet to See Troops

August 15, 2025 at 7:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops has produced Humvees on the National Mall and roving bands of agents in tourist areas as part of his stated effort to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital,” USA Today reports.

“But many residents of the city’s highest-crime neighborhoods say they haven’t yet seen the results of Trump’s surge in the places it is needed the most.”

Filed Under: City Hall, Crime and Punishment

Pam Bondi Tightens Grip on D.C. Police

August 15, 2025 at 5:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday night rescinded Washington policies that restrict the local police from aiding in immigration enforcement as she moved to tighten the Trump administration’s grip on law enforcement in the nation’s capital,” the New York Times reports.

“The two-page order from Ms. Bondi also declared that Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who had already been overseeing the federal takeover of the city’s police department, was now the ‘emergency police commissioner,’ with ‘all the powers and duties’ invested in the city’s police chief, Pamela A. Smith.”

Washington Post: Muriel Bowser and D.C. attorney general reject push by Bondi to name emergency police commissioner.

Filed Under: City Hall

Homeless Camps Cleared in D.C. Ahead of Federal Raids

August 14, 2025 at 8:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“City officials and advocates warned people living in homeless camps to head to shelters or risk arrest in the federal sweeps that were expected to begin Thursday evening as part of President Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in the capital,” the New York Times reports.

Filed Under: City Hall

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

August 14, 2025 at 12:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think the most important thing is that people see themselves and their struggles in your campaign… And I think the larger struggle for us as Democrats is to ensure that we are practicing a politics that is direct, a politics of no translation, a politics that when you read the policy commitment, you understand it, as how it applies to your life.”

— Zohran Mamdani, in an interview with Time.

Filed Under: City Hall

Trump Pushes ‘D.C. Security Fund’

August 14, 2025 at 8:34 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Donald Trump will ask Congress to pass a ‘D.C. security fund’ as part of his push to remake the capital city, a hugely controversial effort that has seen him take over the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy hundreds of National Guard troops and federal law-enforcement officers into Washington neighborhoods,” Punchbowl News reports.

“The composition of the so-called ‘security fund’ is in its infancy. And the White House will face the reality that Congress has to pass government-funding bills at the end of September, with a potential federal shutdown this fall more likely than not at this point.”

When asked about Trump’s proposal, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had a quick response: “No fucking way.”

Filed Under: City Hall

D.C. Residents Protest Military Presence

August 14, 2025 at 6:33 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Residents in one Washington, D.C., neighborhood lined up Wednesday to protest the increased police presence after the White House said the number of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital would ramp up and federal officers would be on the streets around the clock,” the AP reports.

“After law enforcement set up a vehicle checkpoint along the busy 14th Street Northwest corridor, hecklers shouted, ‘Go home, fascists’ and ‘Get off our streets.’ Some protesters stood at the intersection before the checkpoint and urged drivers to turn away from it.”

Washington Post: D.C. to see more federal troops as Trump pushes to extend emergency.

On Truth Social, President Trump framed his efforts as part of a crusade to “liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!”

Filed Under: City Hall

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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