'Ominous': Conservative delivers dire warning as Trump's 'personal' police power grows

A conservative analyst on Wednesday issued a dire warning about President Donald Trump's deployment of federal troops to the nation's capital.

Trump deployed more than 1,000 federal troops to Washington, D.C., this week to address local crime. On Tuesday, officers arrested 23 people for drug possession and other crimes. The deployment sparked outrage among both Democratic and Republican analysts, with many calling it an authoritarian move.

Bill Kristol, editor at large of the conservative newsletter The Bulwark, joined CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Wednesday to discuss the news. He described the developments as "ominous."

"It's not as if he did a study of crime in DC and said we need this many additional law enforcement, or any kind of training for this kind of patrolling," Kristol said. "He wants to establish the principle that he gets to send federal agents in to cities when he wants to, without any serious factual showing of why it's necessary or why it's an emergency."

"This is where it gets much more ominous," Kristol said. "He can take over the local police force, and he's not limiting this to DC."

Kristol suggested Trump may already have the infrastructure in place to expand his command of police forces nationwide. Trump has previously said he was willing to send troops to cities like Chicago, Baltimore, and Los Angeles.

"Suddenly, when you put this together with ICE, Donald Trump has vastly expanded the personal law enforcement authority in, potentially, major parts of the United States," Kristol added.

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