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| Trump’s DC takeover is a move of staggering hypocrisy | Trump’s DC takeover is a move of staggering hypocrisy |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| Donald Trump is concocting a drama in DC because he would like us to really stop talking about the Epstein files | Donald Trump is concocting a drama in DC because he would like us to really stop talking about the Epstein files |
| One of most violent days in the history of Washington DC, was 6 January 2021, and the instigator was Donald J Trump, who this week has endeavored to seize control of the nation’s capital, after reports that a former employee of the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) was assaulted in the city. | |
| In a sense the new event echoes the old; both are illegitimate power grabs made on the basis of lies. In 2021 it was a lie about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election; in the summer of 2025 it’s lies about crime levels. Reliable sources – including the Biden Department of Justice in January – have noted that violent crime there is at a 30-year low. Five people died as a result of that 2021 attack on Congress, and dozens of law enforcement officers were injured, some gravely, by the mob Trump incited. On his first day in office in 2025 he pardoned 1,500 of the convicted criminals who stormed the capital, some of whom went on to commit more crimes. | In a sense the new event echoes the old; both are illegitimate power grabs made on the basis of lies. In 2021 it was a lie about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election; in the summer of 2025 it’s lies about crime levels. Reliable sources – including the Biden Department of Justice in January – have noted that violent crime there is at a 30-year low. Five people died as a result of that 2021 attack on Congress, and dozens of law enforcement officers were injured, some gravely, by the mob Trump incited. On his first day in office in 2025 he pardoned 1,500 of the convicted criminals who stormed the capital, some of whom went on to commit more crimes. |
| The hypocrisy is obvious, or it would be if most discourse about contemporary events wasn’t so contemporary that events before last month get left out. Of course hypocrisy and double standards are a key element of the rightwing commitment to inequality, and their violence imposes their version of order, even when it breaks bones and the law. As Wilhoit’s law famously put it: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” | The hypocrisy is obvious, or it would be if most discourse about contemporary events wasn’t so contemporary that events before last month get left out. Of course hypocrisy and double standards are a key element of the rightwing commitment to inequality, and their violence imposes their version of order, even when it breaks bones and the law. As Wilhoit’s law famously put it: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” |
| The former Doge employee who was attacked is 19-year-old Edward Coristine, AKA Big Balls. As long as we’re talking about violence, this spring the medical journal the Lancet estimated that Doge’s dismantling of USAid could result in more than 14m deaths, a third of them children, by 2030. When it comes to sheer numbers, that’s like killing everyone in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, or if you prefer everyone in Denmark, Norway and Estonia, but these deaths from disease, malnutrition and hunger will be largely out of sight for most Americans. Of course there’s been a lot of direct violence by the Trump administration on display in the United States this year too, including mothers dragged away from their children by heavily armed men in masks and immigrants brutalized in gulags in El Salvador. | The former Doge employee who was attacked is 19-year-old Edward Coristine, AKA Big Balls. As long as we’re talking about violence, this spring the medical journal the Lancet estimated that Doge’s dismantling of USAid could result in more than 14m deaths, a third of them children, by 2030. When it comes to sheer numbers, that’s like killing everyone in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, or if you prefer everyone in Denmark, Norway and Estonia, but these deaths from disease, malnutrition and hunger will be largely out of sight for most Americans. Of course there’s been a lot of direct violence by the Trump administration on display in the United States this year too, including mothers dragged away from their children by heavily armed men in masks and immigrants brutalized in gulags in El Salvador. |
| The attempt to take over the capital fits with rightwing and authoritarian agendas in so many ways. Modern conservatives love to hate cities because cities are places where diversity and inclusion thrive, where immigrants, people of many ethnicities, queer and trans people, nonconformists, bohemians, independent women and progressives tend to concentrate. A political map of the US mostly shows an archipelago of blue islands in a sea of red, and those islands are blue because they’re also Democratic strongholds. | The attempt to take over the capital fits with rightwing and authoritarian agendas in so many ways. Modern conservatives love to hate cities because cities are places where diversity and inclusion thrive, where immigrants, people of many ethnicities, queer and trans people, nonconformists, bohemians, independent women and progressives tend to concentrate. A political map of the US mostly shows an archipelago of blue islands in a sea of red, and those islands are blue because they’re also Democratic strongholds. |
| They are threats to the right electorally and because they are hotbeds of tolerance and of cultural, religious, racial and sexual diversity, and most have high immigrant populations. By flourishing, they disprove the rightwing theory that if these things are permitted all hell will break loose. But it is more fun for the right to pretend that these cities are dangerous because they are cesspits of crime and depravity. | They are threats to the right electorally and because they are hotbeds of tolerance and of cultural, religious, racial and sexual diversity, and most have high immigrant populations. By flourishing, they disprove the rightwing theory that if these things are permitted all hell will break loose. But it is more fun for the right to pretend that these cities are dangerous because they are cesspits of crime and depravity. |
| That notion that cities or ethnic neighborhoods or progressive movements are out of control justifies harsh law enforcement and violations of rights in the name of getting them under control. In other words, it justifies authoritarianism, which claims to be protecting some of us while attacking lots of us. Something that’s also been part of rightwing discourse lately is able-bodied adult men claiming to be afraid to walk down the street in American cities. All through the years when my town, San Francisco, was being demonized by rightwing and some mainstream media, conservative tech dudes would claim to be afraid to take a stroll here, which comes across to normal city dwellers as astonishingly fragile and cowardly. | That notion that cities or ethnic neighborhoods or progressive movements are out of control justifies harsh law enforcement and violations of rights in the name of getting them under control. In other words, it justifies authoritarianism, which claims to be protecting some of us while attacking lots of us. Something that’s also been part of rightwing discourse lately is able-bodied adult men claiming to be afraid to walk down the street in American cities. All through the years when my town, San Francisco, was being demonized by rightwing and some mainstream media, conservative tech dudes would claim to be afraid to take a stroll here, which comes across to normal city dwellers as astonishingly fragile and cowardly. |
| Most recently the professional provocateur and pundit Charlie Kirk tweeted: “Was just in NYC all weekend with our family. Never felt safe. So many people in the city who don’t belong. Praying for all involved.” Who doesn’t belong in a city? The answer would be: Kirk doesn’t if he’s unable to feel safe amid a diverse population. | Most recently the professional provocateur and pundit Charlie Kirk tweeted: “Was just in NYC all weekend with our family. Never felt safe. So many people in the city who don’t belong. Praying for all involved.” Who doesn’t belong in a city? The answer would be: Kirk doesn’t if he’s unable to feel safe amid a diverse population. |
| New York has long been a great city of immigrants, the most linguistically diverse city on Earth with 800 languages, including many endangered ones, spoken there, and a city whose tourism and convention bureau estimates 68 million apparently unafraid visitors will come to New York in 2025. Another rightwing pundit and social-media personality, Benny Johnson, just made lurid allegations about crimes he witnessed and suffered (but apparently failed to report at the time) in Washington DC, including his house being set on fire. Not to be outdone Senator Markwayne Mullin declared on Wednesday night on Fox News that he doesn’t wear a seatbelt when driving through DC so he can flee in a hurry if he’s carjacked. | New York has long been a great city of immigrants, the most linguistically diverse city on Earth with 800 languages, including many endangered ones, spoken there, and a city whose tourism and convention bureau estimates 68 million apparently unafraid visitors will come to New York in 2025. Another rightwing pundit and social-media personality, Benny Johnson, just made lurid allegations about crimes he witnessed and suffered (but apparently failed to report at the time) in Washington DC, including his house being set on fire. Not to be outdone Senator Markwayne Mullin declared on Wednesday night on Fox News that he doesn’t wear a seatbelt when driving through DC so he can flee in a hurry if he’s carjacked. |
| Authoritarians are at war with cities because they are at war with our rights and our diversity. It behooves us all to defend them – cities, rights, diversity, including by fending off the lies and propaganda that are themselves weapons in this war. And of course Trump is concocting a drama in DC, with the national guard being turned into an army of extras, because, speaking of violent crime, he would like us to really stop talking about the Jeffrey Epstein files and his long and close association with that child trafficker and rapist. | Authoritarians are at war with cities because they are at war with our rights and our diversity. It behooves us all to defend them – cities, rights, diversity, including by fending off the lies and propaganda that are themselves weapons in this war. And of course Trump is concocting a drama in DC, with the national guard being turned into an army of extras, because, speaking of violent crime, he would like us to really stop talking about the Jeffrey Epstein files and his long and close association with that child trafficker and rapist. |
| Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility | Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility |
| Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility | Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility |