Authoritarians rule with fear, force and lies. That mindset underscores President Donald Trump’s social media rants about Washington, DC: crime and punishment. It explains Monday’s executive order federalizing the District of Columbia.

In case you’ve missed it, Sunday on Truth Social, Trump vowed to end what he described as violent crime and out-of-control homelessness in DC.

However, the violent crime rate is down 30% from its Covid peak in 2023; in January the Department of Justice noted it was “the lowest it has been in over 30 years.” Nevertheless, Trump invoked a “crime emergency” in an executive order. Note: violent crime increased across the nation during Covid, not just in DC.

Neither is DC among the top 50 dangerous cities in the world based on homicide rate. In the US, Memphis, St. Louis and Baltimore have higher murder rates.

Trump conveniently dismissed some specifics of Section 740 Home Rule Act of 1973 which governs the District in a press conference where he tossed another possible Epstein distraction against the media wall to see if this one sticks. After all, Monday morning U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York rejected the Department of Justice request “to unseal grand jury testimony from the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.”

And here’s why you should care: this is Trump’s plan for deep-sixing democracy in the United States.

“We have other cities also that are bad,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let it happen. We’re not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further. We’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick, very quickly.”

Steve Bannon, quoted on Bluesky: “I hope this is a template for Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.” Trump added Oakland to that string in his presser. These cities are in three blue states.

PBS rightly notes that this move “[raises] fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts.”

No president has ever before invoked Section 740 of the 51-year-old Home Rule Act. The most recent “riot” in DC that injured members of the DC police was the January 6, 2021 insurrection populated by MAGA Republicans. Trump didn’t see that as an emergency situation worthy of heavy-handed federal intervention.

“Only Congress could place D.C. under the federal government’s control by overturning the Home Rule Act of 1973, which allows residents to elect their mayor and council members,” according to Democracy Docket.

However, Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows the executive office to install the district’s National Guard troops and take over the Metropolitan Police “for federal purposes” in case of an “emergency” for only 30 days, according to ABC. The crime data do not scream “emergency.”

The catalyst for the latest authoritarian move may have been because teens assaulted and attempted to steal the car of a former Department of Government Efficiency employee (Edward Coristine aka Big Balls). Two teens were arrested at the scene.

“The administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb told PBS. “There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia.”

The actions began last week, before Trump invoked Section 740:

Last week, the Republican president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option “to extend as needed.”

On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington.

Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was “ridiculous” and the city was “unsafe,” after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency.

It’s not just the National Guard. Trump is deploying at least 500 federal law enforcement officials, diverting them from their real jobs like cybercrime, drug trafficking and domestic terrorism.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) told PBS ‘the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.”

Democracy Docket outlines the threat to democracy and the current status of litigation over similar moves in Los Angeles:

Experts have previously told Democracy Docket that the Trump’s administration’s desire to use military units alongside police undermines federal law barring the government from using military personnel in civilian law enforcement.

As with his deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles, Trump in sending troops to D.C. is relying on a theory of executive authority called the “protective power.”

The theory asserts that presidents using troops to protect federal personnel, property and functions do not violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using active duty personnel to execute laws.

Later on Monday, a trial is set to convene in California over whether Trump’s use of the military in Los Angeles violated Posse Comitatus.

Trump has crossed a broad red line while Congress is on recess, not that we can expect the GOP to constrain him at all.