Republicans in Congress are rushing through a wave of legislation designed to strip Washington, D.C., of its limited self-governance and cement President Donald Trump’s grip over the majority-Black city.
With the National Guard patrolling the streets and federal control over local institutions expanding by the day, residents say the nation’s capital feels less like the seat of American democracy and more like a foreign-occupied territory.
“Day 13 of Trump’s occupation of the District of Columbia,” Donna Brazille, a political strategist and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter on Aug. 24. “D.C. residents are trying to go about their lives like other American citizens. When we tackle emergencies, we do it together — by working with our civic leaders and local officials. We deserve better. #FreeDC.”
The latest push includes bills that hand the president sweeping powers to control D.C.’s laws, police, and courts.
Sen. Mike Lee (R) of Utah introduced S.2404, a measure allowing Congress to swiftly block any emergency legislation passed by the D.C. Council, effectively nullifying the city’s ability to respond to crises without federal approval.
On the House side, Republicans are advancing multiple bills to extend and deepen Trump’s Aug. 11 executive order declaring a “crime emergency” in the District. Rep. Anna Paulina (R) Luna of Florida introduced H.J.Res.114, which keeps the emergency declaration in place indefinitely, until the president alone decides to end it. Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona filed H.R.5015, lengthening the period of presidential control over the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) from 30 days to six months, with the change applying retroactively to Trump’s takeover order.
Biggs also introduced H.R.5016, which would bar individuals charged with crimes in D.C. from being released pretrial without posting a secured bond, a measure critics warn will explode jail populations and disproportionately impact Black residents.
Together, the bills give Trump direct authority over policing, courts, and local lawmaking in a city where nearly half the population is Black. They follow Trump’s incendiary rhetoric describing D.C. as lawless and ungovernable, despite the city experiencing one of its steepest crime declines in decades before the takeover.
D.C. leaders and residents have denounced the measures as racist power grabs aimed at dismantling home rule and silencing the political voice of the city’s 700,000 residents, who have no voting representation in Congress.
“This is not about safety,” one community activist said. “This is about control, about punishing a Black city that never supported Trump.”
The presence of armed troops on neighborhood streets makes clear the chilling new reality. Washington, D.C., once a global symbol of democracy, now bears the look and feel of occupation — its laws rewritten, its police commandeered, and its people forced to live under a federal boot pressed harder each day.
“It’s clearly racist in nature and it makes me want to vomit,” Tracy Thomas, a white mother of three, said during a recent visit to Nationals Park.
With a large African American population in the District, Thomas noted that the president’s actions seem to be racially motivated.
“Where in South Dakota, Utah or Wyoming are they doing this? They are not,” Thomas emphasized. “What Donald Trump is doing makes me ashamed of white men in power.”
This article provides the best accounting of the breadth and depth of the takeover. The fact that the Republican bills were introduced so seamlessly to coincide with Trump’s actions shows how well planned and intentional this major step in autocratic rule was designed to be.
DC is just a practice run. You are wrong if you think that you are safe because you live in a self-governing state. Coming to a state like yours soon.