President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize Washington, D.C.’s police force and deploy the National Guard is both a practical crime-fighting measure and a political masterstroke.
On the ground, it brings badly needed manpower to a city that’s been drowning under violent crime for years. Politically, it’s flushing out exactly how irrational—and reflexively anti-Trump—Democrats can be, even when faced with a chance to make their own constituents safer.
Trump Owns It https://t.co/1dpExxD4rj
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) August 12, 2025
Enter Rep. Eric Swalwell, who managed to turn an already bad Democrat talking point into a full-blown self-own. On the very day Trump announced his plan, Swalwell posted about a shooting death in the city—before the president’s federalization order could have had any impact—while declaring, “Trump owns it.”
Are you out of your mind? This is exactly what Trump is trying to stop! It’s been 2 days. Have we moved on from the “DC is safe as houses lie?” Now it’s a problem but it’s Trumps fault? Who let you post this? https://t.co/s6qHqtoYEo
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) August 12, 2025
In one stroke, Swalwell undermined his own side’s narrative. For weeks, Democrats had been downplaying the severity of D.C.’s crime problem. Yet here he was, waving around a fresh homicide as proof that yes, there is a problem—but trying to pin it on Trump before Trump even had a chance to act. The logic collapses under its own weight. By Swalwell’s reasoning, if one day is enough to “own” the problem, then Democrats have owned every single crime in the city during their years of total control.
Dems: Crime in DC is really rare these days and federal intervention is unnecessary.
Literally 2 hours later: All this crime in DC is now Trump’s fault! https://t.co/A9zKRM3kst
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) August 12, 2025
Trump isn’t responsible for the capital’s violence—he’s stepping in to fix it after years of policy failure under Democratic leadership. A serious response would welcome the help, not reject it because of the name attached to it. Instead, Swalwell’s knee-jerk opposition gives us a preview of the new strategy: don’t address the root causes, just blame Trump for every crime that happens from this day forward.
It’s the same pattern Rep. Jamie Raskin fell into earlier—attack the action simply because Trump initiated it, even if it’s the exact sort of intervention the city desperately needs. Meanwhile, on Morning Joe, even MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough admitted some Democrats were quietly relieved by Trump’s move.
