Donald Trump is now responding to the criminal charges he is facing for having targeted the election results from 2020 by calling for a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., which he continues to characterize as “filthy.”
The nation’s capital has a large Black population, and Trump’s incessant targeting of this city on highly personal grounds mirrors the claims from Trump and allies of his about other communities with large Black populations after the 2020 presidential race. Some of the areas where they raised the most feverish complaints included such communities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit.
This time, Trump claimed that D.C. had just passed its record for murders, which available data appears to indicate is flatly incorrect. Allowing for a more full comparison, D.C. last year reached 200 murders. Historically, the city has gone above 400 murders in a year. Present problems with crime can be obscured by misrepresentations of what’s actually transpiring that arguably service a political agenda.
“NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL, OR EVEN CLOSE TO A FAIR TRIAL, IN WASHINGTON, D.C.,” Trump claimed Sunday. “THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR THIS, BUT JUST ONE IS THAT I AM CALLING FOR A FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF THIS FILTHY AND CRIME RIDDEN EMBARRASSMENT TO OUR NATION, WHERE MURDERS HAVE JUST SHATTERED THE ALL TIME RECORD, OTHER VIOLENT CRIMES HAVE NEVER NEEN WORSE, AND TOURISTS HAVE FLED. THE FEDERAL TAKEOVER IS VERY UNPOPULAR WITH POTENTIAL AREA JURORS, BUT NECESSARY FOR SAFETY, GREATNESS, & FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE!”
This post is not the first time Trump has referred to D.C. as “filthy.” According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the city’s population has a larger share that is Black than the share that’s white (and not Hispanic or Latino), and in the context of that other antagonism towards such communities from these political leaders, the racist implications of Trump’s rhetoric appear obvious.
