Will D.C. mayor’s appeasement of Trump stop a military occupation?

In a few days, on June 14, the country will witness one of the most egregious displays of the U.S. military propaganda machine’s power seen in decades in Washington, D.C. A grand parade will officially commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, but as everyone knows, it’s really President Donald Trump celebrating his own 79th birthday.

The U.S. Armed Forces plan to occupy downtown D.C. for several hours to showcase their military might. Soldiers will march along Constitution Ave., dozens of tanks and armored vehicles will roll through the streets, paratroopers will drop from above, lethal naval vessels will patrol the Potomac River, and bombers and jet fighters will swarm the skies.

This supposed celebration of the troops will take place while the Trump government is simultaneously cutting benefits for military veterans and their families, firing veterans from the federal workforce, busting federal workers’ unions and ripping up their collective bargaining contracts, and wasting U.S. taxpayer dollars on the illegal detention and terrorizing of immigrant families, and of course, funding the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.

The Army says the parade itself will cost the public about $45 million, but the damage to roads and other infrastructure in the District could add $16 million or more to the bill.

The Trump birthday bash falls a week after World Pride celebrations in D.C., which saw hundreds of thousands of people come out to celebrate the expansion of democracy to include LGBTQ rights and equality, as well as the continued struggle for it.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, however, who claims to be a champion of LGBTQ rights in the “gayest city in the world,” just unveiled a budget that would curtail the rights of Pride celebrants as well those of their siblings in other democratic movements—like African American equality, women’s equality, labor rights, and others.

Since the beginning of Trump 2.0, in fact, Bowser has been cozying up to the Trump administration, as evidenced by the destruction of Black Lives Matter Plaza, the continued displacement of homeless encampments, and by showing face in the White House next to the president to unveil the plan to sell the public land around RFK Stadium to big business landlords and developers—the same developers who have played a major role in the displacement of D.C. residents for decades.

The mayor claims that all these actions have been necessary to defend D.C.’s autonomy over its local affairs, an autonomy enabled by the Home Rule Act of 1973.

Her recently-unveiled budget (derisively termed a “MAGA Budget” by UNITE HERE Local 25), is supposedly the result of a $1.1b cut in funding allocated to D.C. by Congress. It increases spending on the police while cutting Medicaid programs and paid family leave. The budget also completely repeals the Initiative 82 law (which eliminated the tipped minimum wage), repeals the city’s sanctuary status, cuts Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), reduces funding for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), repeals the D.C. Child Tax Credit, ends the “baby bonds” program, and imposes many other harmful policies.

These cuts to social programs and policies in the District are pitched as measures to offset the potential encroachment of the federal government into D.C. affairs. To remind readers, this same Mayor Bowser gained national prominence in 2020 for painting Black Lives Matter Plaza in order to (symbolically) combat Trump’s use of the Secret Service and police to clamp down on George Floyd protests outside of the White House.

But just like how Target and many other major corporations have rolled back their diversity programs to placate Trump, Bowser has also caved—but claiming it is all in defense of D.C.’s Home Rule. Residents are being told we have bigger fights ahead of us, so the District has to wisely pick its battles.

There’s no doubt more and bigger battles are still to come, but why give way to the fascist administration on any grounds? Compliance in advance only allows the fascists to consolidate their control and wield even more power.

When you surrender to an enemy, they aren’t placated—they’re emboldened. Turning Point USA fascist Charlie Kirk, for instance, was seen smirking and filming the day BLM Plaza came down, claiming it was the “end of the mass race hysteria happening in our country.”

The rollback of immigrant rights is another capitulation. The repeal of D.C.’s Sanctuary Values Act, passed in 2020, would allow D.C. institutions to cooperate with federal immigration agents and may open up D.C. Jail and other properties to immigrant detention.

As we’ve seen in Los Angeles the past several days, the U.S. government is using ICE and Homeland Security agents to terrorize communities, and the community is now rising up and fighting back. These Gestapo-like incursions are right out of a Nazi playbook. The administration has now taken over the California National Guard through executive order to quell protests against ICE, and active-duty Marines have been unleashed on the streets of Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass of L.A. is pushing back against the Trump terror.

In D.C., it’s a different story. How far will Mayor Bowser go in trying to appease Trump? Surrender on so many fronts in the name of defending D.C. autonomy could end up surrendering autonomy altogether.

There are rumors that Trump and his MAGA ilk in the cabinet are scheming to take over the District of Columbia completely and turn it into a “freedom city” run by the fascist technocrat, Peter Theil. This approach may be similar to an old company town or newly-incorporated municipalities founded around big businesses like the city of Starbase, Texas, connected to Elon Musk’s SpaceX corporation. Internationally, cities like Prospera in Honduras, also known as “start-up” cities, are run by libertarian tech billionaires, with local citizens left fighting to control the future of their own communities. This is a dangerous threat now facing the people of Washington, D.C., as well.

Many analysts say the Trump administration is testing the waters in L.A. to see what the public response might be to military rule. With his birthday parade in D.C., the president potentially has the opportunity to stage an even bigger experiment

Once the tanks roll through the streets and thousands of armed troops march the boulevards, might Trump order the them to simply remain and occupy D.C.? Would the military’s leaders obey such a command? What would the response from the D.C. government be? Would it have mattered that Mayor Bowser made deals with the Trump administration behind the scenes in hopes of protecting the local rule of D.C.?

It is well past time for the D.C. government to fight back and protect its residents against Trump. D.C. people’s movements have been organizing to defend themselves against the encroachment on the District, and the city’s leaders need to stand up alongside them.

June 14 isn’t just Trump’s birthday; it is also the next national day of action—“No Kings Day.” The 50501 movement and other major advocacy organizations like Indivisible, MoveOn, and Women’s March are collaborating to block Trump’s assault on democracy.

The anti-MAGA movement is in motion, but is it ready to meet the moment and expel a potential military occupation in the nation’s capital, which is home to 700,000+ second-class citizens? A real united front against fascism could not come any sooner.

As with all news-analysis and op-ed articles published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.

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