Dem
47
GOP
53
On Saturday, the governors of Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia announced that they will send some National Guard troops to D.C. to help Donald Trump take power from the D.C. police force. Ohio will send 150 soldiers, South Carolina will send 300, and West Virginia will send 300-400. In all cases, this was in response to a request from Donald Trump.
Why is Trump doing this? It is all political theater. There was no need for guardsmen in the first place and the areas of D.C. that have the most crime have not gotten any troops. It's all for show. From Trump's point of view, this is a way of forcing the governors to show loyalty to him. If there were actually a need in the first place, he could have called up more D.C. guardsmen. From a PR standpoint, having three states contribute (small numbers) of troops makes the problem in D.C. look like a three-alarm fire, which it is not. But it is all about convincing Trump's base that D.C. is out of control.
In reality, crime in D.C. has been dropping for years and there is certainly no crisis. Trump is simply trying to take over the D.C. government in an unpresidented power grab.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sent out this tweet on Saturday evening: "American soldiers and airmen policing American citizens on American soil is #UnAmerican." (V)