Trump’s D.C. Takeover Is a Fascist Spectacle

“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” the president wrote. “Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City.”

Trump’s threat to “federalize” D.C. is nonsensical on its face. The District of Columbia is a federal enclave under Congress’s control, not the president’s. In one sense, it has been federalized ever since George Washington, who—borrowing from his ample experience as a land speculator in the region—helped select the 10-square-mile district’s location during his presidency. Congress formally established the enclave in 1801 and experimented with a variety of different governance structures for the city’s residents over the years.

In 1973, federal lawmakers enacted the Home Rule Act to allow D.C. to govern itself through an elected mayor and a City Council, similar to those found in other major cities. Richard Nixon, the president at the time, said that he supported the measure as part of his administration’s overall commitment to promote local governance. D.C. residents had previously received the right to vote in presidential elections through the Twenty-Third Amendment; they still lack congressional representation to this day.