Trump’s ‘DC Takeover’ Enters New Phase

The residents of Washington, D.C. have a front row view to the titanic battle brewing between the Trump administration and Democrats over the future of law and order in America’s cities.

A federal siege on inner-city crime has so far netted over 100 arrests as 800 members of the National Guard deploy across Washington in a show of strength that includes “monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities and officers, traffic control posts and area beautification,” according to Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson.

The goal, President Donald Trump said on Thursday, is to clear the disorder plaguing D.C. as he works to woo world leaders back to the nation’s capital for state visits and negotiations over the future of free trade.

“All the leaders, they’re wanting to come, and I’ve said it again but I’m really just quoting other leaders,” Trump said, listing off heads of state he’s spoken with in recent days.

“They all said the same thing: they thought our country was dead. One year ago, your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world,” he continued while crediting his tariffs for bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars over the past several months.

But beyond the money, the tariffs “give us great power over enemies. We solved five wars with Pakiston, India, Azerbaijan and Armenia. It was raging for 37 years,” he explained.

“The leaders come to our country to sign documents that the war is over, or for other reasons. They come for trade. You want them to come through so beautifully, ride down those roads, everything should be perfect. You shouldn’t have medians falling down into the roadway… We’re gonna fix up our roads, we’re gonna clean our sidewalks.”

The president claimed to swap stories with other leaders who have told him about residents who come out at least once per week to “wash their stores and sidewalks,” an endeavor that seems unheard of given the blight and decay so prevalent throughout major American cities today.

“We aren’t quite at that level yet,” Trump joked, “but maybe we will.”

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Trump launched his blitzkrieg on Washington on Monday, announcing a 30-day takeover of D.C.’s municipal government that he hopes to extend. Between 100 and 150 National Guardsmen are in the field at any given time, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced, where they are joined by agents from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secret Service.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told “Fox and Friends” that 45 more arrests were made Wednesday night, including the apprehension of 29 illegal immigrants and the confiscation of three illegal firearms.

One man who threw a sandwich at a CBP officer was later fired from his job at the Justice Department and charged with a felony.

“He thought it was funny,” Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Jeannine Pirro told Fox News of the incident. “Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today, because we charged with him with a felony.”