Fascism spirals upwards in Washington DC
The USA continues to spiral into a completely fascist state.
August 13, 2025. With minor format edits 14 August.
On August 11, 2025, Trump declared a so-called “state of emergency” in the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., and placed the police under Federal control. In other words, the control of his delegates Attorney-General Pamela Bondi; Terry Cole, head of the Drug Enforcement Agency; and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in charge of the militarisation. Trump used an executive order to deploy 800 soldiers in the form of the National Guard to “patrol the city”.
There are no surprises here. On first Marxist principles alone – nothing different was to be expected. V.I. Lenin in summarising the work of Marx and Engels on the nature of the state, pointed out in 1918 that:
“Like all great revolutionary thinkers, Engels tries to draw the attention of the class-conscious workers to what prevailing philistinism regards as least worthy of attention, as the most habitual thing, hallowed by prejudices that are not only deep-rooted but, one might say, petrified. A standing army and police are the chief instruments of state power. But how can it be otherwise? “
V.I.Lenin “The State and Revolution”; Chapter 2, Special Bodies of Armed Men, Prisons etc. Collected Works, Volume 25, p. 381-492; at:
Already on June 10, 2025, Trump’s determination to take a militarised control over key cities was clear. As we reported (“Justifying” a military crackdown – Trump, Stephen Miller use ICE to provoke and goad”) :
“In the USA, the working class is now facing the open beligerence of a military attack in the guise of the “National Guard”. It was explicitly designed to provoke and incite demonstrations. This will thereby enable a “justification” for a spiralling military clampdown. It is the latest – but perhaps most dangerous example yet – of its determination to bring the state ever closer to formal, fully-blown fascism. This is an extremely calculated and well-planned move.” MLRG.online
The latest move in Washington DC
On Monday, August 11, President Trump announced a new pretext to enable his own police and militarised control over the police forces of the USA. This time, the target was the capital city of Washington DC:
“The president on Monday declared “a public safety emergency” in the US capital and invoked for the first time a local law reserved for “special conditions of an emergency nature” to place the Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control, as well as deploying 800 National Guard troops.”
Stefania Palma and Ian Hodgson; “Donald Trump deploys National Guard in Washington over ‘safety emergency”;
Financial Times (FT) London; Aug 11 2025
As the world is now accustomed to, the words of President Trump on their face value usually make no sense or are plain wrong. So what about this current pretext for this new move into fascism? He claimed as follows:
“It’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness,” Trump said, flanked by senior government officials, including US Attorney Pam Bondi, who took control of the police force in Washington.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse,” he added. “This is liberation day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back.”
FT; Ibid.
“Mr. Trump has not been shy about his feelings toward the nation’s capital, calling it a “filthy and crime-ridden embarrassment” and “a rat-infested, graffiti-infested shithole.”
Campbell Robertson New York Times (NYT) For D.C., Threats of a Federal Takeover Were Familiar. Now They Are a Reality”; Aug. 11, 2025
The facts are, of course, in opposition to his claim. Thus, the FT reports that:
“While the capital ranks among the 10 deadliest cities in the US, data compiled by the city’s police department showed homicides dropped 32 per cent between 2023 and 2024 to the lowest level since 2019. There has been a further 12 per cent drop in 2025 compared with last year. “
FT Ibid.
While the New York Times shows a slide in violent crime rate – one that decreases steadily – except for the COVID years:
Adam B. Kushner; “The D.C. Takeover“; New York Times August 12, 2025;
The Response of the Democratic Party
The headline of the Süddeutsche Zeitung on this topic reads “Mightily helpless against Trump” (13 August 2025, Nr.185 p.6). Indeed – if the responses of the Democratic Party are viewed.
The Democratic Mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has already shown her willingness to placate Trump’s aggression:
“In March, she ordered the removal of the Black Lives Matter mural that was painted on a city street five years earlier as a pointed message to Mr. Trump, who was in his first term as president. Afterward, Ms. Bowser was candid about how she saw her mission in his second term. Washington residents, she said, “want us to be smart and strategic and get to the other side.”
“And that’s my job: I’m going to navigate us to the other side,” she added.”
Campbell Robertson New York Times (NYT) For D.C., Threats of a Federal Takeover Were Familiar. Now They Are a Reality”; NYT Aug. 11, 2025
On this most current action, she “is not surprised”:
“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Muriel Bowser, Washington’s Democratic mayor, said on Monday.
Bowser on Sunday acknowledged there had been a “spike” in crime in 2023, but said there had been a sharp drop in the past two years.
“We are not experiencing a crime spike,” she told MSNBC, adding she was “concerned” about the National Guard enforcing local laws, given it was not “their primary role”.
FT Ibid.
So while it is good that she is “not surprised”, she outlines no course of action for the increasingly alienated workers of America.
We previously noted on June 10th (See MLRG.online ) the rather muted, or shall we simply say – a lack of militant response – of the Democratic Party against the recent deployment of the National Guard in LA:. Governor Newsom of California launched a lawsuit:
“The president earlier this year federalised the National Guard in California, deploying thousands of troops to clamp down on immigration and quash protests in Los Angeles.
Although many of the troops have since been withdrawn, the Democratic governor of the state, Gavin Newsom, is challenging their deployment in court. The trial began in San Francisco on Monday.”
FT Ibid.
Law suits against Trump are fine. But not in isolation from the mass movement. So – a purely court maneuver at the time was offered by the Democratic Party. But as we and others have pointed out previously, the courts have been either bullied or packed with Trumpites. At the level of the Supreme Court in any case, the separation of the law from the state has been simply ripped up in the USA. (See MLRG.online “ May 29, 2025. )
On this latest Washington DC ‘federalisation’ of the police, verbally, the Democrats have made a small, but purely verbal counter-pressure:
“Democrats pushed back against the president’s orders. “Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department,” House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a post on X. “And zero credibility on the issue of law and order. Get lost.”
FT Ibid.
Of course, given Trump’s open espousal of a coup in Washington, D.C., this ‘zero credibility’ is correct. But what credibility does Jefferies and the Democratic Party have in stopping Trump and fascism? Only verbal.
Thus far, we have found no record of the “progressives” of the Squad pointing out how dangerous the latest Trump action is. Nor – anything other than a simple verbal opposition to it from within the ranks of the Democratic Party.
According to the paper that reports from the Washington seat of power on “the Hill” – verbal stands have been taken by the “Democratic Mayors Association,” who:
“ … slammed President Trump’s announcement to federalize the police force of Washington, D.C., on Monday, calling it a “political charade.”
“Let’s be clear: Crime is down in most major cities — including Washington, D.C. – in spite of Donald Trump, not because of him. If Trump actually cared about reducing crime, he wouldn’t have made unprecedented cuts to public safety programs that actually work. If Trump actually cared about our communities, he would be working with our cities, not against them,” the Democratic Mayors Association said in a statement.
The Democratic Mayors go on to say:
“But the truth is Trump doesn’t care — he only wants to create yet another political charade to serve his own interests and distract Americans from his failures. While Trump may try to vilify Mayors and take credit for their work, Democratic Mayors will never stop fighting to protect and strengthen our communities because that’s what they do — they get things done,” the statement continued.”
Julia Manchester; “ Democratic mayors decry Trump’s ‘political charade’ in DC”;
“The Hill” 08/11/25 ;
It is also true that some have placed Trump’s actions into a context of trying to distract from the still-present Epstein scandal:
“Donald Trump’s economy is failing, his Epstein files cover-up won’t go away, and public support for his agenda is way down. So it’s no surprise that he is trying to distract the American public,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.”
Julia Manchester; “Democratic mayors decry Trump’s ‘political charade’ in DC”; “The Hill” 08/11/25 ;
But these purely verbal attempts to counter-act Trump, are not going to be effective in stopping the on-going militarisation. The danger is even greater. Because while there are special laws enabling Trump to effect this “federalisation” – it is not likely to be restricted to Washington DC. Indeed, today the Washington Post reports that there are secret plans for a fast deployment force to move into “cities facing protests or other unrest”:
“The Trump administration is evaluating plans that would establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of hundreds of National Guard troops tasked with rapidly deploying into American cities facing protests or other unrest, according to internal Pentagon documents reviewed by The Washington Post.”
(as reported in Barry Grey, “Washington Post publishes government plans for deployment of troops to cities across the US”: WSWS; 13 August 2025).
It is necessary for the United Anti-Fascist Front must get itself sorted out. Immediate protests must be organised. We noted previously that the people are on the move (“The Shaping up of the Anti-Trump, Anti-Fascist Front in the USA” MLRG.online, 15 June 2025).
These efforts must be improved – and accelerated.
13 August 2025.
