Report From the Front Lines of the Battle of the Dumpsters:

What it’s really like as Trump slow-motion invades Washington, DC

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The out of control violent “crime emergency” in Washington, DC that Donald Trump declared and then deployed nearly 2,300 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. to fight - armed with pistols and M4 military rifles - is so bad many of those heavily armed troops are now being directed to - pick up trash.

Yes. Pick up trash.

The “Battle of the DC Dumpsters” is now engaged.

Most of the soldiers I’ve seen here here spend their days standing around or leisurely walking around areas and locations that were considered very safe by big city standards long before Trump’s military street theater show ever arrived.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Deployed, federalized National Guard troops engage in a standard activity - standing around - In Washington, D.C.’s busiest Metro station, Metro Center. Deployed here to supposedly “fight crime,” many of the soldiers have been assigned to pick up trash around the city. The “Battle of the DC Dumpsters” has begun. (PHOTO BY BARRY PIATT)

It’s hard not to laugh at the absurdity of what the president some call “Cadet Bone Spurs” is doing in this city. There is no violent crime emergency in Washington, D.C. Certainly not one that requires a military response.

As one of the nation’s largest cities, like any big city, there is crime. Violent crime. But it is down significantly. In January, 2025, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia - part of the federal Department of Justice - announced that Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) data found that violent crime in Washington, D.C. was down 35% in 2024, compared to 2023, and had reached a 30 year low.

That is the “crime emergency” for which Trump deployed about 2,300 National Guard troops, at an estimated cost of about $1,000,000 per day.

It’s pure show business, with a bigger daily production budget than any blockbuster that ever played on Broadway.

It is not without its purposes, however, purposes that reach far beyond - and in far more sinister ways - than Trump’s simple show business.

It is, truly, no laughing matter.

• For starters, it is one more desperate attempt by Trump to distract Americans from the Jeffery Epstein files that Trump is obviously trying to cover up, along with his likely multiple mentions in them and what God, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Donald Trump only know about his possible entanglement in Epstein’s sordid crimes.

• Trump’s “Battle of the DC Dumpsters” also feeds the apparently insatiable appetite for racist dog whistles of Trump’s MAGA/Republican base - or at least what’s left of it as his job approval rating plummets to 38%.

  It’s hard not to notice that Washington, DC is a majority Black city, with a Black mayor, and that every other city he has mused about sending federalized troops into to fight non-existent crime emergencies also have Black mayors.

  It’s also impossible not to notice that Republican led cities - with far higher violent crime rates - are not only NOT scheduled to be invaded by federal troops and have the federal government take over local law enforcement, but aren’t even mentioned in that conversation.

  It’s an all too convient fit with Trump’s racist messaging and policies that permeates much of Trump’s 2.0 administration and that animates and energizes so much of Trump’s MAGA/Republican base.

• Most disturbing of all, however, is that Trump’s “Battle of the DC Dumpsters” is playing out as a text book method for getting ready to block elections and help keep Trump in office as a dictator.

  Sound crazy? Sure it does. But no crazier than what he has already done - actions that make his authoritarian ambitions and antipathy toward democracy clear - and certainly no more unimaginable than what he already actually tried to pull off through violece on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.

  Here’s how it works: Quietly and slowly move federalized troops over time into Democratic cities, and take over local law enforcement there, then declare martial law because of imaginary crime emergencies; or civil unrest in response to the provocations of a lawless president intent on sparking civil unrest, and - voila! - martial law is declared! Sorry, but the elections are cancelled until further notice.

  Trying to pull all this off on one day with violence - on January, January 6, 2021 - didn’t work, even with Trump in office and unwilling to call his dogs off or deploy the National Guard or to act in any way to protect the Capitol from an on-going, violent attack.

  So why not try to do the same thing in slow motion, over months instead of on one day?

  Under this scenario, the rush to partisan gerrymander congressional districts on an unprecedented mid-decade time table - in Republican states - started by Texas and at Trump’s urging, becomes a mere back up plan in case the slow motion coup is somehow blocked.

  Which tells us how serious Trump’s assault on democracy is this time around.

I made it a point to talk with deployed National Guard troops I encountered in Washington, DC over the past two weeks.

Keep in mind that many of them were deployed from Republican states with Republican governors, and Republican majority populations. Keep in mind, too, that many - most - are young. To an old geezer like me, they look like kids. But they are not kids. They are adults, with very grown up responsibilities and very serious jobs to do.

Most who I talked with thought their deployment here to “fight crime” was a kind of a joke. While they were careful not to speak out of line, they clearly agreed that community police work is not what they’ve been trained to do. They also agreed that being sent to Washington, DC to mostly stand around and to eventually be sent to pick up trash was a waste of time and money.

They were not blind to the political show business part of their mission, either.

I told every group of soldiers I talked to that I opposed their mission here, but understood that none of this was their idea. I opposed it because it demeaned and diminished them. It ignored and trivialized their professional training as soldiers, not show business and political props. It mocked the sacrifices they make to serve.

I got a lot of head nodding, affirmative responses to all that.

I also thanked them for not wearing masks, for wearing uniforms that identify where they are from in the government, and for displaying their names - unlike the thugs from other agencies who snatch people off the street and are indistinguishable from common kidnapping gangs.

More affirming head nods.

I concluded every conversation by reminding each soldier that they had a personal and legal obligation to ignore an illegal order, noting that - in my view - a Commander in Chief who was capable of sending them on this nutty mission was also very much capable of issuing illegal orders to them. I asked them to think - in advance - about what those illegal orders might be, and how they will respond to them when it happens.

“We’re all counting on you to obey the law, and uphold your legal obligation,” I said.

Many not only nodded in agreement, but shook my hand and thanked me for coming over and talking to them.

The deployed soldiers on the streets of Washington, DC are unnecessary, and represent a grave misuse of the military by Donald Trump in my view.

But they don’t scare me.

It’s what their demented, anti-democracy, dictator wannabe, Commander in Chief and those around him might ask them to do that keeps me up at night.

Iowa’s congressional delegation - the “Silent Six” - of course, continues to nap through all of this.

In fact, they actually support this million dollars a day, dangerous boondoggle that will only grow more costly and more dangerous in the days and weeks ahead.

WEEKLY OVER DUE FARM BILL TRACKER: 701 days

A previously unthinkable record has been reached.

A new Farm Bill to replace the one that expired in 2023 is now 701 days over due. Iowans in Congress have had a special role in this unimaginable failure.

701 days have passed since the 2018 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2023, without Congress passing a new one. (Total days as of Sunday, 08/31/2025).

Two thirds of Iowa’s congressional delegation serves on the U.S. House or Senate Agriculture Committees: Grassley (R-IA) and Ernst (R-IA) in the Senate; Nunn (R-3rd IA) and Feenstra (R-4th IA) in the House.

This weekly “tracker” monitors the time that continues to pass as the President, Congress - and Iowa’s congressional members, especially those who serve on the Ag Committees - fail to do their job of enacting a long over-due Farm Bill.

Check back for weekly updates.

IS SENATOR ERNST QUITTING?

News reports indicated this week that Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) - “Iowa’s Incredible Shrinking Senator,” whose political stock has been on a largely self inflicted, downward trajectory for some time now - is expected to announce next week that she won’t run for re-election in 2026. I’ve decided to wait until she makes her announcement - if she makes that announcement - before sharing my thoughts on it.

I’ll share my reaction then on what she actually said, as opposed to what everybody thinks she’s going to say . Not that I think those reporting a likely “no go” announcement is coming are wrong. I’ve just seen enough “sure thing” announcements in government and politics that everybody “knew” were going to happen unravel and not happen over the years.

And I remember President Lyndon Johnson. When decisions he had made leaked before he announced them and were accurately reported, he would deliberately take the opposite action, turning a reporter’s scoop into inaccurate reporting. Which never plays well with editors.

So I’ll wait. Check back next week.

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