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On August 5th, Trump posted a photo of a beaten and bloody man sitting on a curb in Washington D.C.
The man’s name was Edward Coristine. He was an active member of DOGE, and was a key part of dismantling USAID. According to police reports and a statement from Coristine himself, he was attacked in his car in the middle of the night by a group of teenagers. After the attack, a fellow DOGE member took a photo of him and posted it on social media.
The photo quickly went viral, reviving a movement amongst republicans to challenge the autonomy and authority of D.C. police.
After the attack, Trump made many posts on social media about crime statistics in D.C., stating that crime was out of control. Of course, these statements were not based on any facts. The only real proof that Trump had about crime in D.C. was one photo of a man who was attacked. The truth? According to the Metropolitan police in D.C., violent crime in D.C. has gone down 27% in D.C. since 2024.
So why, then, did Trump choose to use violent crime as an excuse to deploy the national guard to D.C?
The answer is simple: Americans love justice.
Trump has continuously used cherry-picked crimes as a way to advance his agenda. One of the more famous examples of this is the murder of Jocelyn Nungaray. She was murdered by two illegal immigrants during Joe Biden’s presidency. Trump responded to this case with outrage, using it to attack Biden’s immigration policies.
Trump also used this incident as a way to generalize all illegal immigrants as violent people. During his campaign for president, Trump was quoted many times saying that illegal immigrants are raping people and killing American citizens.
The truth, though, is more murky than Trump makes it seem. It is extremely difficult to study the incarceration rate of illegal immigrants, however, a study done by the Cato Institute states that the incarceration rate for US citizens is 1,221 per 100,000 while the incarceration rate among illegal immigrants is 613 per 100,000.
And yet, according to a poll conducted by Gallup, 47% of Americans believe that illegal immigrants increase crime in the United States.
Crime is, and always has been, extremely important in US politics. Many Americans vote for the politician who they view as tougher on crime. In the case of Donald Trump, many Americans viewed his policies as tough on crime, when in reality, they only served to push an agenda that benefits him.
The takeover of D.C. was a fabricated crisis that will no doubt be used to justify the takeover of other blue cities. The association of illegal immigrants and criminals has been used to generalize Hispanic people and push for policies that attack and marginalize them.
The perception of justice and punishment has become extremely distorted among the American people, and Trump has taken advantage of that to push his far-right, racist agenda.
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