‘You spit, we hit’: Trump just took over DC with vow to stop ‘thugs’ from abusing cops. He already pardoned hundreds of them

Monday marked the beginning of a Trump takeover of Washington D.C.’s law enforcement capabilities and what many Democrats fear could be step one of full federal control over the District of Columbia.

At the White House, Donald Trump was flanked by top officials including FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi as he announced that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the city’s main police force, would be brought under federal control.

From behind the podium, the president recalled images of police officers facing abuse by protesters he’d watched on TV screens over the years, clearly evoking anger in him and leaving a city braced for Trump to fulfill a long-awaited desire to “send in the troops.”

He then passed around images of individuals arrested over the weekend, and promised that, going forward, police officers would be unhinged in their treatment of criminals and, likely, dissenters: They’ll be able to do “whatever they want”, Trump vowed. “You spit, and we hit.”

It was about as explicit a lean into the “strongman” image as one could ask for. But the president’s fixation on clashes between protesters and law enforcement has one glaring exception: January 6.

The violent siege of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021 lasted for several hours. In the end, protesters left the building after police officers from neighboring counties in Maryland and Virginia arrived to quell the chaos.

A deployment of more than 6,000 National Guard troops was finally authorized at 6 p.m., hours after the chaos began and hours after the worst of it ended.

Dozens of officers were injured, several died after the attack including one who sustained injuries during it, Brian Sicknick. Survivors recounted vicious abuse from protesters, especially Black officers who recounted racial slurs and threats of violence.

But the Capitol is not where the January 6 story ends.

As Trump supporters left the Capitol that day, they fanned out across the entire District of Columbia, some returning to homes and hotels in the region and others spreading mayhem across the city. Businesses were boarded up as far as southeast D.C. and scattered evidence of vandalism was seen around residential areas and various neighborhoods the next day.

It was the city’s most violent day in decades. But on the campaign trail last summer, Trump vowed his first act would be to pardon all of them.

True to his word, and despite the pleas of even some Republican supporters, on the day Trump was sworn in he pardoned some 1,500 people who participated in the siege on the U.S. Capitol and were either convicted or facing charges.

MPD officers were part of the initial response as well. Some of the officers who responded that day are now under the command of the same administration that pardoned hundreds of Jan. 6 offenders, including some charged with violence against MPD and Capitol Police officers.

One of those rioters, Julian Khater, was charged with spraying officer Sicknick with a chemical repellant during the attack; a colleague later testified that Sicknick looked “ghostly pale” afterwards.

Even so, the MPD’s union chief told Fox News on Monday that his outfit “completely agree[s]” with Trump that crime in D.C. is “out of control.” He and union officials pointed to an MPD commander under investigation for allegedly falsifying crime data, and claimed that it was a lie that crime in the District of Columbia was decreasing. The Justice Department touted that data as recently as January, days before Trump took office.

For Trump, Monday was “Liberation” day. “Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote on Truth Social ahead of the press conference he’d teased all weekend.

But city officials are adamant that the trends mapped by the data are real, and that all types of crimes including some of the most stubborn categories such as carjackings were dropping in frequency across the board.

“Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told MSNBC on Sunday. “There are very specific things in our law that would allow the president to have more control over our police department. None of those conditions exist in our city right now.

“We had one of the lowest crime levels and shootings that we’ve had in a July in recent history. So, not only are we going down year to year, we’re seeing the trends go in the right way in every crime category.”

There’s no question: Trump has been looking for an excuse to do this.

A Rolling Stone investigation published earlier this year cited two sources with knowledge of the president’s conversations as saying that Trump was speaking to aides just after taking office in January about identifying the earliest possible moment when it would be appropriate to send in federal troops for crime suppression efforts.

Anger felt by some city residents (among whom Trump supporters are still a slim minority) on Monday was embodied by restauranteur José Andrés, who tweeted at the president: “[Y]ou didn’t have the power to call the National Guard on January 6 but now you do? Washington DC is not only our nation’s capital…it’s a beautiful city that 700,000 people call home. I’m proud to run a business and raise a family here. DC doesn’t need federalized troops…it needs leaders who respect our fundamental founding principles of democracy, dignity, and respect.”

Trump finally got his opportunity with the July attack on a man whose online nickname — “Big Balls” — propelled him to both mockery and notoriety. The former DOGE staffer, who is still a federal employee, named Edward Coristine, was attacked while allegedly intervening during a carjacking attempt. According to police reports, Coristine was mobbed by a large group of teens during the attack and had his iPhone stolen in addition to being viciously assaulted.

Groups of teenagers have become a major problem for city officials in recent weeks, with residents reporting large numbers of young adults and school-aged children attacking people on city streets, neighborhoods such as Navy Yard (where many congressional staffers live) and the Metropolitan Branch Trail, a paved route across the northeastern part of the city used by pedestrians and cyclists. In some cases, groups have numbered as high as hundreds of people and have required massive police responses.

The only questions for Trump now are how far he takes this, and how much punishment he’ll dole out on D.C. elected officials. Even as Bowser continues to avoid a public confrontation, Trump aimed harsh rhetoric at the city council on Monday.

And it remains to be seen whether he’ll try and take this effort national once again, after being largely stymied in his efforts to impose a sustained presence on the city of Los Angeles over ICE protests.

A compliant Congress will likely make any Trump takeover of D.C., no matter how broad, a smooth process. But that same dynamic won’t be found if the president tries to reimpose his will on America’s blue states, where governors are raring for the chance to show that they have the backbones which their voters are demanding they show.