On national guard, 200 people at a time focused on administrative work:
> U.S. Army spokesman Col. Dave Butler said that most National Guard troops live locally and that the idea is to deploy them in shifts of 200 soldiers each to provide a round-the-clock presence.
> The troops for now will be focused on providing logistical and administrative support to free up D.C. police officers, similar to their support role at the southern U.S. border.
And they basically don’t want to actually run the police dept:
> Trump named Terry Cole, the head of the DEA, as interim commissioner of the D.C. police. Cole told Police Chief Pamela A. Smith on Monday evening that the federal team is hoping for the Metropolitan Police Department to lead the effort,
> Cole described Trump’s takeover of the department as more of a collaboration, and he stressed that officials would meet and work together to figure out where to deploy resources, the official said.
Basically they’re putting bodies out there so DC can put more local cops in the streets. And they really don’t know how to run anything when it comes to policing DC. How would they? They need the local cops to actually understand the issues.
Not saying any of this is good. But wanted to add this context.
I’ll change my mind when there’s news beyond what I’ve stated. I feel confident in what I’ve stated because all parties (DC and Feds) are saying similar things.
But to take the opposite maximalist “Trump is a maniacal dictator” position ignores the pattern of bluster and back down from Trump.
Save your mental sanity. His goal is your outrage. He doesn’t have a plan.
The military is a blunt instrument. It is good at destruction and killing, not so good at construction and subtle care. Neither is the police, but they are at least a little bit better at it. You call in the military as a means of last resort when you are in a war. To call in the military to fight crime is about as useful as to bring a chain saw into an operating theater.
He doesn’t have a plan* other than finding the button that keeps him in the news and generates narcissistic supply. When he gets bored of that button he backs off. Then he finds a new shiny button to press that freaks people out and generates headlines.
Social media posts where people are freaked out - like many on this thread - is to him like the best high possible.
The best you can do is respond to actual facts on the ground and ignore the bluster.
* it’s the people around him with plans to be worried about
I mean sure but whether it is the people around him or him eroding democracy and shifting the overton window feels a bit like arguing semantics while the titanic is going down.
Edit: to the point about Trump wanting outrage, I don’t really care what he wants I want more people engaged in what is happening not less.
Which I’m not saying is good, but we should separate the bluster from the reality.
From this article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/08/11/trump-dc-...
On national guard, 200 people at a time focused on administrative work:
> U.S. Army spokesman Col. Dave Butler said that most National Guard troops live locally and that the idea is to deploy them in shifts of 200 soldiers each to provide a round-the-clock presence.
> The troops for now will be focused on providing logistical and administrative support to free up D.C. police officers, similar to their support role at the southern U.S. border.
And they basically don’t want to actually run the police dept:
> Trump named Terry Cole, the head of the DEA, as interim commissioner of the D.C. police. Cole told Police Chief Pamela A. Smith on Monday evening that the federal team is hoping for the Metropolitan Police Department to lead the effort,
> Cole described Trump’s takeover of the department as more of a collaboration, and he stressed that officials would meet and work together to figure out where to deploy resources, the official said.
Basically they’re putting bodies out there so DC can put more local cops in the streets. And they really don’t know how to run anything when it comes to policing DC. How would they? They need the local cops to actually understand the issues.
Not saying any of this is good. But wanted to add this context.