President Donald Trump isn’t just orchestrating a National Guard-led takeover of Washington, D.C. – he’s rolling out new measures, including banning the city’s cashless bail system and flag burning as part of a broader campaign targeting the district.
According to columnist Amanda Marcotte in Salon, this is all part of Trump’s attack agenda, engineered to provoke misery rather than protect public safety.
"Don’t get me wrong: The MAGA base loves this so-called 'crackdown,'" Marcotte wrote. "But not because it’s making D.C. safe. They love that it’s making D.C. miserable. They appear to know the victims of this charade aren’t criminals, but ordinary people just trying to live their lives. MAGA is getting sadistic joy out of terrorizing ordinary people whose only 'crime' is living in a diverse, vibrant and majority Democratic city, instead of Cracker Barrel America.
Marcotte points out that the soldiers and federal police are primarily concentrated in low-crime tourist zones such as the White House, Capitol, and National Mall, with federal agents even marching through Georgetown, where zero violent crimes have been reported in 2025.
Trump dispatched several hundred additional National Guard soldiers from red states around the country. The result has been large groups of soldiers standing around in the heat and humidity of the area without much to do.
Meanwhile, neighborhoods actually affected by crime are being ignored. City officials pointed out that violent crime in the District is at a 30-year low, yet Trump’s intervention has made residents feel less safe. Since the takeover began, restaurant reservations have dropped by 31 percent, despite the city celebrating its annual “Restaurant Week,” typically meant to boost business during the summer exodus.
August is usually a slow period in D.C. because residents leave town, Congress is in recess, and lobbyists are scarce. This year, with the federal presence, the situation worsened. Despite these facts, the White House claims restaurant traffic is up — a claim Marcotte describes as “hilariously false.”
"D.C. is a real city full of people," Marcotte wrote. "It’s not Patriot Disneyland for people who are mad they can’t find the Applebee’s among all the Ethiopian joints. That’s the 'crime' Trump is so mad about, which is why he’s also pushing for $2 billion to 'have this place beautified' — a terrifying proposition for anyone who has witnessed his love of plastering everything with cheap gold paint."
Vice President J.D. Vance has insisted the crackdown is about freeing D.C. from lawlessness, while White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has lashed out at critics, insisting only “stupid white hippies” are mad about the occupation. He’s gone so far as to say Black residents support the deployment, contradicting polls showing 80 percent of Black D.C. residents oppose the National Guard’s presence.
Videos of law enforcement harassing residents or dismantling anti-Trump protest banners are being shared and celebrated, especially by the MAGA base, who appear to take “sadistic joy” in the disruption. Marcotte contends that the focus is not on real criminality but on targeting cultural difference—punishing residents for living in a diverse, Democratic city. Trump’s rhetoric about “retribution” and “revenge” echoes through his campaign, and D.C.—where he won only 6% of the vote—is now in the crosshairs. The effort is consistent across other blue cities, while actual crime hotspots in red-state cities are ignored.
As Marcotte explained, the real “crime” targeted by this takeover is not violence or public disorder but the lifestyles and values of city dwellers—people who read books, explore diverse cuisines, and celebrate different identities. Trump supporters appear gleeful, seeing abuse faced by D.C. residents under the occupation as just reward for living in a city they deem foreign and hostile to their worldview.
For Marcotte and many city residents, the federal occupation is less about safety and more about a performative and authoritarian power grab meant to punish D.C.’s cosmopolitan character.