Whatever you may think of President Donald Trump, you can’t deny he has a flair for theatrics. This skill has been on full display since Sunday evening when he announced he would “take federal control” of Washington, D.C., in response to the beating of one of his former staff members at the hands of youths.

Trump has now announced a “federal takeover” of D.C. involving 500 federal agents from seven federal law enforcement agencies. These agents will soon be supplemented by an additional 800 troops from the D.C. National Guard. Trump also named Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as interim commissioner of the D.C. police.

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“You’ll have more police, and you’ll be so happy because you’ll be safe when you walk down the street,” Trump said Monday. “You’re going to see police, or you’re going to see FBI agents … going to have a lot of agents on the street … and you’re going to have a lot of, essentially, military.”

This was catnip for Democrats operating under the delusion that the United States is teetering on the edge of fascism. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) called it a “raw authoritarian power grab” and part of a growing national crisis.

“He’s playing dictator in our nation’s capital as a dress rehearsal as he pushes democracy to the brink,” he said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) added, “Violent crime in Washington, DC is at a thirty-year low…Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department. And zero credibility on the issue of law and order.”

However, local leaders supported Trump’s announcement. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the federal assistance an “opportunity,” adding, “The fact that we have more law enforcement presence in neighborhoods, you know, that may be positive.”

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said federal policing resources will make it easier for her officers to execute warrants, patrol high-crime neighborhoods, and enforce juvenile curfews.

“What you will see is an enhanced presence,” Smith said.

Cole described the “takeover” of D.C. police as more of a collaboration.

As much as national Democrats such as Jeffries and Van Hollen refuse to admit it, D.C. has a big crime problem. Murders are down from 2023, but they are still higher than they were a decade ago and three times higher than they are in New York. Reps. Angie Craig (D-MN) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) were both recent victims of violent crime. Craig was assaulted in her building’s elevator, and Cuellar was carjacked. A congressional intern was also murdered in D.C. this summer. Jeffries, Van Hollen, and other elected Democrats perhaps think this level of violence is acceptable in the capital, but the public does not.

D.C. was created as a federal enclave in the Constitution to provide Congress a safe area to conduct the nation’s business. If D.C.’s government can’t provide that safety, Trump has every right, and the duty, to step in. Decades of ideological but unprincipled leadership have fostered a government culture of vacillation and incompetence. However, the Home Rule Act of 1973 gives the president express authority to take care of a city’s police for 48 hours, and that takeover may be extended for another 30 days after Congress is notified.

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Congress then has to vote to extend federal control. The Trump administration must be looking forward to that vote tally. Who will vote for safety and effective legal government? Who will condemn the capital’s inhabitants to decline and criminal predation with a partisan vote to perpetuate decline and disintegration? Just two years ago, former President Joe Biden signed a congressional resolution overturning the Council of the District of Columbia’s reforms that reduced penalties for carjacking and illegal gun possession. Dozens of Democrats voted with Republicans on that resolution. We are sure Republicans can’t wait to get Democrats on the record about whether they are cool with current levels of crime and disorder in the capital.

There is a reason the Democratic Party continues to post record-low approval numbers, most recently in Gallup’s decadeslong tracking poll. Trump keeps finding ways to get them to defend the indefensible. Is Trump’s deployment of 500 federal agents going to end all crime in D.C.? No. However, as Bowser and Smith noted, it will help lower crime. That national Democrats can’t just admit that is why they have no credibility with Americans.