Trump’s ‘dictator-like’ D.C. takeover is an assault on democracy, critics warn

President Donald Trump’s decision to seize control of Washington, D.C.’s police force and flood the city’s streets with National Guard troops has drawn urgent warnings from lawmakers, human rights advocates, and civil rights groups who say the move represents a dangerous escalation of presidential power and a direct threat to democracy.

On Monday morning, Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to seize control of the Metropolitan Police Department and activate National Guard troops in the city, a move not used in decades. Flanked by Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, he painted a grim and misleading picture of the nation’s capital, vowed to dismantle no-cash-bail policies, and said that officers confronting protesters were “allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”

Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, in a Monday afternoon press conference, tied Trump’s dark portrayal of D.C. to “his COVID-era experience during his first term,” pointing to the period during Trump’s first term when pandemic restrictions, economic disruption, and social isolation strained public safety nationwide.

After lockdowns lifted in 2021, Washington, like many U.S. cities, saw a temporary surge in homicides and violent assaults, driven by factors researchers say included court backlogs, the proliferation of firearms, and heightened social stress. Justice Department and Metropolitan Police Department data show those rates have since fallen sharply, with violent crime in D.C. down 35 percent in 2024 and another 26 percent so far in 2025, reaching the lowest level in three decades.

Bowser emphasized that police leadership remains local. “Chief Pamela Smith is the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, and its 3,100 members work under her direction,” she said, noting that the police chief had sent a high-level liaison to interface with the Justice Department. Bowser also said she has sought a meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi.

She warned that “access to our democracy is tenuous” and argued that only D.C. statehood could prevent presidents from unilaterally deploying the National Guard or seizing control of city services.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s non-voting representative in Congress, has condemned Trump’s move as “a federal power grab against the will of D.C.’s elected leadership,” warning it could set a precedent for future presidents to override local governance.

U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, a gay California Democrat and ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, drew a direct line to the January 6 attack. “When Trump talks about crime in D.C., we should all remember that he is directly responsible for one of the worst crimes D.C. has witnessed in generations,” Takano told The Advocate in a statement.

“On January 6, 2021, Trump unleashed a mob on the United States Capitol to try and overturn a free and fair election,” Takano said. “Trump’s nonsensical comments about the trans community are simply him trying to distract from the fact that, aside from the felon living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, crime in D.C. is at its lowest in 30 years. Trump seems to spend more time thinking about trans people than on how to actually make life better for Americans throughout the country.”

Amnesty International USA warned on X (formerly Twitter) that the militarization of D.C. “should be seen for what [it is]: a dangerous distraction not rooted in reality.”

Trump’s remarks Monday mixed crime rhetoric with political grievance and cultural attacks. He vowed to dismantle the city’s no-cash-bail policy, declared that officers confronting protesters were now “allowed to do whatever the hell they want,” and pivoted to railing against “sanctuary cities” and “transgender for everybody.”

Kris Tassone, policy counsel for Advocates for Trans Equality, told The Advocate that the deployment of military and federal forces into Washington is “not the conduct of a functioning democracy.” They said, “These aren’t measures that make people safer. They erode public trust, disrupt everyday life, and instill fear in law-abiding citizens.” Instead of protecting communities, Tassone warned, “this kind of aggressive policing increases the likelihood of racial profiling and state-sanctioned violence, particularly against marginalized groups.”

Tassone said Trump’s comments made it “painfully apparent” that “this isn’t some unintended consequence—it’s the plan.” They accused the administration of “deliberately using the transgender community as a political scapegoat, sowing fear and division to distract from its own dishonesty and failures.”

“Let’s be absolutely clear: trans people are not a threat. They never have been,” Tassone added, emphasizing that the strategy is part of “an ongoing campaign to target and harm trans people, immigrants, Black communities, and other vulnerable populations. We reject it fully, and we stand firmly with the communities under attack.”

A GLAAD spokesperson warned that Trump’s military escalation “is a danger to every American and our freedoms, especially LGBTQ people." They criticized the absence of clear directives for the newly empowered patrols, calling it “a volatile environment that makes the streets of DC dramatically less safe for everyone, particularly LGBTQ people and venues already at greater risk of targeting and violence.” The spokesperson also said Trump has, in at least a dozen unrelated speeches, “repeatedly spread inaccurate and incoherent rhetoric” about LGBTQ people and an “obsession” they described as “disturbing and dangerous to every American.”

According to GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Tracker, Trump has increasingly used the phrase “transgender for everybody” in recent months, making it a regular fixture in speeches and public remarks as part of his broader culture-war rhetoric.

The House Oversight Committee Democrats, led by gay ranking member U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, called the move “dictator-level stuff” in a statement on X, warning that deploying the military on D.C.’s streets “only creates fear and chaos.”

Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Trump’s move “political theater,” telling reporters it was designed to distract from unrelated controversies, including the Jeffrey Epstein documents. “His idea in federalizing the police force of D.C. ignores the reality [that] they’re making dramatic progress in reducing violent crime in D.C.,” Durbin said. While legal under the Home Rule Act for 48 hours, Durbin noted, any extension would eventually require congressional approval.

For D.C., where nearly 15 percent of adults identify as LGBTQ+, the highest share in the nation according to the Williams Institute, advocates say the stakes are particularly acute.

Laurel Powell, a spokesperson for the D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, said Trump is “spreading falsehoods to justify undermining our freedoms and pitting communities against one another,” calling the move a “dangerous power grab.”

By combining “shameful attacks on trans Americans” with threats to occupy other U.S. cities, Powell said, the president revealed that the takeover is “about much more than the streets of DC.”

is not about safety; it’s about intimidation. His actions endanger all families and threaten all our freedoms. We call on all DC residents, and all Americans, to stand united in rejecting this blatant abuse of power.”

National LGBTQ Task Force President Kierra Johnson called the deployment “an outrageous targeting of those who live in, work in, and love the Nation’s Capital.” The organization’s headquarters are in Washington, D.C. She accused Trump of using “misrepresentations” about public safety to justify “assuming and exerting full power over this country free of rules, accountability, and with disregard for the people.” Johnson said the administration’s actions amount to “an attempt to occupy our streets and terrorize our residents,” warning that other blue-state cities, “notably all in blue state strongholds and sanctuaries like New York, California, and Illinois,” are likely next. “It is up to all of us across the nation and in every zip code to resist the unconstitutional and illegal use of the military and Federal law enforcement,” she said.

On last week’s Rachel Maddow Show, the MSNBC anchor cautioned that what’s unfolding is not a hypothetical slide into authoritarianism but its arrival. “We are there. It is here,” Maddow said. “Life in the United States is profoundly changing… we have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”

She likened the moment to a caricature of an authoritarian state, citing secret police, prison camps, political firings, and the criminalization of protest. Maddow pointed to immigration raids carried out by masked ICE agents, funding cuts to universities and law firms unwilling to align with the president, and the use of military force inward on the American people. “We’re beyond waiting and seeing now,” she told viewers. “We have crossed a line.”