Many people think that President Trump will use the National Guard against prominent Democratic cities like Boston or Chicago after what happened in California; however, I believe this is wholly unlikely. The National Guard has only been used to its full effect in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., and here’s why.
I’ve lived north of the Washington border my whole life, in the suburb of Silver Spring in Montgomery County, Maryland, or, as it’s sarcastically and affectionately referred to, “uptown D.C.” My parents met in one of my father’s stores, “Olsson’s Books and Records,” which at one point had locations that spanned the capital.
My political awareness started almost as soon as I could read the “Taxation Without Representation” license plates on the back of my family friend’s cars: a reference to the lack of federal rights for those in Washington. The district does not have statehood, meaning it lacks any real representation in Congress or protection from federal overreach. The strange legal structure of the district is the reason why the federal government has been so aggressive in Washington – there is simply no state constitution.
If Washington were a state, it would have a larger population than Wyoming and Vermont. Despite stereotypes, real people live there, not just the families of congressmen.
Throughout the entirety of Donald Trump’s first term, local high schools repeatedly walked out in protest, skipping class to take to the streets of Washington. It was common for me to come home from middle school and see my sister’s entire high school being filmed by a helicopter TV crew. By the end of her junior year, Montgomery County Public Schools considered giving students three excused absences a year for “civic engagement.”
However, this upbringing was not unique to my area; almost every nearby school had field trips to all the major museums and landmarks. Washington is proud of its education, political will and acceptance of others. But it is this core of identity that Trump indiscriminately attacks every day of his presidency.
Unlike what some believe, the White House’s grasp on the district didn’t start with the National Guard, which was deployed after former “DOGE-Bro” and Northeastern student Edward Coristine was beaten outside of a Washington metro station.
Rather, the saga started almost as soon as Trump was inaugurated. In those first couple of months, one of Trump’s executive orders included one called “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.” The order purported to increase the quality of life in Washington and fix what Trump believes are the many problems that stain the capital of the world’s most powerful country: homelessness, illegal immigration, crime and fare evasion. Alongside these problems, Trump also outlined his resolve to fix the “wokeness” of the Smithsonian museums in a similar executive order, replacing history with his own hallucinogenic version that does not include his 2021 impeachment.
The “Safe and Beautiful” executive order was primarily intended to give the federal government the pretext to impose the National Guard on Washington. It calls upon almost every three-letter agency imaginable to cooperate “to apprehend and deport illegal aliens in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area” and gives sweeping powers to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.
People who don’t live in the area may not understand this at first glance, but a key aspect of the National Guard’s invasion is the visceral disdain that residents hold for it. This is especially true among the educated bureaucratic and academic class, many of whom lost their jobs as a result of Trump’s chainsaw. Oftentimes, they won’t even say his name in a Voldemort-style verbal affliction, instead calling him “Cheeto” or “he-who-shall-not-be-named.” For them, the National Guard is a constant middle finger, an invincible authoritarian putting up his war banners against immigrants and political opponents. Trump is attempting to warp the cultural fabric of the district and its surrounding areas, something he is only able to do because of the district’s unique legal status.
Trump has also been attempting to weaponize the Department of Justice, and more specifically, the D.C. Attorney’s Office, against its citizens, although not very successfully. Since there is no state-level court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, headed by former judge, prosecutor and Fox News “The Five” co-host Jeanine Pirro, has been left to wade in the legal equivalent of sewage water. Her attorney’s office has been tasked with taking over a thousand arrests to trial; however, many of these cases have the substance of a ham sandwich, something which she can’t even indict.
When the government charges someone with a felony in the district, they have to prove before a grand jury of 23 Washington residents that there was probable cause that the crime had been committed. This is an incredibly low bar; only a simple majority is needed to secure an indictment. In 2010, out of 162,000 felonies brought before a grand jury, only 11 weren’t indicted. But just in the past month, eight separate cases were rejected and did not result in an indictment, including the man charged with felony assault after throwing the aforementioned sandwich at a federal law enforcement officer.
Because of the lack of state law inside the district, the National Guard can stay in Washington as long as Trump sees fit. The limitations on the deployment of the National Guard don’t apply to Washington because the president is always in control of it. This is different from other types of deployments, which typically require the use of the Insurrection Act if not granted by a state governor. While the act is ambiguous, it does have its limitations, which resulted in a federal judge finding the use of the National Guard in California illegal.
Trump will change the city to the way he wants it: The Attorney’s Office will be weaponized against its residents, history will be co-opted and its character marred by behold-our-glorious-leader-style fascism. The National Guard is there to protect Trump against the people whom he attacks every day, and any protest against him will be contorted to validate his use of the guard further.
Washington is a unique city in both its political culture and its unique legal status. No other city will experience the same level of federal involvement and attacks on its identity. The National Guard was called into Los Angeles after “riots” against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement; however, the federal government’s control over the people and the city is comparatively limited in scope. National Guard deployments are politically costly and time-consuming; Trump cannot afford another disgraceful deployment. He was able to do it in Washington due to the constitutional control over the district that the federal government enjoys, and while he did launch a deployment in California, he ended up practically kickstarting Gavin Newsom’s 2028 presidential bid.
The National Guard will only be imposed on another American city if there is not a controversy in the same way that there was in Los Angeles or Washington. Trump cannot deploy the guard in big cities like Chicago, Boston or New York. He is limited to smaller cities that won’t cause the same level of outrage, especially amongst independent voters. In any case, the National Guard’s image is already stained, and the top brass of the guard knows it. The imposition of the National Guard is dirty — a national embarrassment and a flagrant abuse of power. Even if future deployments aim to wash its image, they will never undo the malice inflicted upon my city.
Neil Olsson is a combined international affairs and economics major. He can be reached at olsson.n@northeastern.edu.
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