Over the past few months, the Trump administration has continued its mission to place fear and subordinate cities across America. President Trump and his supporters have argued that unrest in several U.S. cities represents a breakdown of law and order and that deploying the military is necessary to restore public safety. It has now been a few months since then but Washington, D.C., was among the first U.S. cities this year to see the National Guard deployed on its streets. The deployment marked one of the only times in the countries’ history to have troops deployed on its own citizens.
Although it is easy for many Americans to forget such a historic moment, the people of Washington, D.C., are reminded every day when they walk outside and see members of the National Guard stationed on their streets. For them, it is not some distant political controversy or “fever dream” — it is their daily reality. In a time when new, mind-boggling headlines from the Trump administration seem to appear almost hourly, it is crucial for the public to stay informed and question the narratives presented to them, rather than letting the normalization of such unprecedented actions go unchallenged.
On a recent trip to the county’s capital, I discovered something quite funny. The streets are actually nice, of course, it’s a bit busy here and there, but other than the few businessmen and regular everyday people on their way to work or home, it’s quiet. Well, except when you notice the military personnel on almost every corner, and what are they doing, you ask? Absolutely nothing, they stand around all day and do nothing, it’s almost like it’s their job to simply loiter and try to look threatening, but ultimately fail.
It’s become a sort of a wheres waldo game when you take a stroll around the city, grab a bite to eat with friends and in the midst of the busy city life, you see a group of people geared up head to toe as if they are about to head into battle to defeat an elite war criminal. Instead, they are standing on a random corner joking and laughing amongst one another, an anomaly amongst the busy cities. Their overall existence is what is making the city of Washington look like the crime-filled capital that Trump believes it is. Sending the national guard to your city won’t solve a thing; all it’s done is make them look like a joke and completely unserious.
American cities are being littered with fascism and overreach from the Trump administration as they wrongfully deploy the National Guard on its own. In this attempt to flex its strength, our government has earned nothing from this stunt except laughter and distrust. In trying to assert control, the government has instead exposed its own fragility and turned itself into a national punchline. If this moment shows us anything, it’s that unchecked power can turn even the most powerful nation into its own satire — unless we refuse to accept it as normal.
