Trump’s DC takeover is a move of staggering hypocrisy | Rebecca Solnit

Donald Trump is concocting a drama in DC because he would like us to really stop talking about the Epstein filesThe most violent day in the history of Washington DC, leaving aside the War of 1812, was 6 January 2021, and the instigator was Donald J Trump, who this week has endeavored to seize control of the nation’s capital, after reports that a former employee of the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) was assaulted in the city.In a sense the new event echoes the old; both are illegitimate power grabs made on the basis of lies. In 2021 it was a lie about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election; in the summer of 2025 it’s lies about crime levels. Reliable sources – including the Biden Department of Justice in January – have noted that violent crime there is at a 30-year low. Five people died as a result of that 2021 attack on Congress, and dozens of law enforcement officers were injured, some gravely, by the mob Trump incited. On his first day in office in 2025 he pardoned 1,500 of the convicted criminals who stormed the capital, some of whom went on to commit more crimes.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility Continue reading...

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