Siege Mentality: Trump’s DC Takeover to Crush His Own Demons
This is not a distraction from the Epstein situation, it’s a projection of it.
Today, the President of the United States declared soft martial law in the nation’s capital—in one of his most jaw-dropping White House appearances yet, even by Trump standards—dispensing with any remaining veneer of constitutional order or rule of law. I’m including the first twenty minutes here for the record, but don’t feel obligated to watch it all. I will summarize below.
This speech is deeply disturbing, a man entirely unmoored from objective reality using an absurd pretext, the alleged attempted carjacking of DOGE teenager Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, to execute a violent paramilitary crackdown of another major American city using dehumanizing, intentionally Nazi-reminiscent language.
Speech Breakdown
Breaking down the major points from Trump’s speech:
Legal Changes
Trump invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act which directly places the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under federal control, stripping authority from local leadership.
“I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act… placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.”
On no basis at all, with plummeting local and national crime rates, Trump declared a public safety emergency which grants extraordinary powers to federal and local law enforcement operating under federal command.
“Today we’re declaring public safety emergency in the District of Columbia.”
Note that Hitler’s 1933 Reichstag Fire Decree suspended local rights under emergency powers, paving the way for federal police consolidation and domination.
Trump promises to change the statutes on cash bail nationally, not just limited to D.C.
“We’re going to change the statute… we’ll get it passed with the Republicans.”
Personnel Changes
Attorney General Pam Bondi was, incredibly, appointed as commander of the Metropolitan Police Department.
“Attorney General Pam Bondi… is taking command of the Metropolitan Police Department as of this moment.”
Terry Cole was designated Interim Federal Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Doug Burgum was highlighted as Interior Secretary in charge of U.S. Park Police.
“He’s interior, but he’s in charge of the U.S. Park Police.”
Operational Changes
National Guard will be deployed and authorized to operate with expanded use-of-force rules designed to allow military force to be used without repercussion.
“We will bring in the military if it’s needed… we’re going to have National Guard.”
Last week, Trump deployed over 500 federal agents from FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals, Secret Service, DHS, and Park Police in Washington, D.C.
Trump announced mass deployment of federal law enforcement onto DC streets.
“Massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers, and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street.”
Trump is changing police rules to encourage more violence against citizens.
“You spit, and we hit… now they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”
Trump says he’s going to “get rid of the slums.”
“We get rid of the slums, too… we’re getting rid of the slums where they live.”
Trump plans a “beautification” of the city citing road resurfacing, graffiti removal, and infrastructure repairs framed as part of public safety.
“We’re going to replace the potholes… nice new coat of asphalt… going to clean it very quickly.”
Not Distraction, Projection
It is now a cliché, understandably, to paint everything Trump does as a “distraction” from his Epstein problems. I think that’s an unhelpful frame in this case. Anything could be a distraction. This is not distraction, it’s projection of his gravely wounded ego onto his surroundings.
The crime, filth, and degeneracy Trump projects onto D.C.’s residents are the same qualities he is desperate to erase from his own past. When he vows to “get rid of the slums,” he is psychologically trying to crush his own demons—turning his inner war into federal policy.
In short, by installing his cult members throughout the Executive Branch, Trump has now turned his own psyche into the operating system of the U.S. Federal Government.
Truly Unique
If you’re really disoriented about all this, that’s not you. This truly is a unique situation. There is no precedent for this moment because when a leader is in the last stages of narcissistic collapse like Donald Trump, generally that leader is also in a declining power—not at the head of the most powerful state in history.
In 1929, Mussolini was still in his ascendancy and wrote this to Boncompagni Ludovisi:
Dear Governor,
On the resumption of begging—that I myself have personally and repeatedly observed—there comes to me—on my request, the enclosed note from the Royal Police Headquarters. Give the orders that the beggar-house be brought to completion. It was a pride of the Regime, the disappearance of beggars. Let us not turn back. Send the appropriate officer to do a site inspection.
Mussolini, April 17 VII [= 1929]
By 1943, however, Mussolini’s regime was collapsing under military defeats and economic ruin. Rather than recalibrate, he retreated into a bunker mentality, surrounded by sycophants, and lashed out at perceived traitors. Trump is now on the same trajectory—externalizing his inner collapse by purging perceived enemies and projecting decay outward.
“It must be recognized that the betrayals of the Summer of 1944 were even more opprobrious… Who are the traitors? … It was not peace, but rather… one immense field of ruin.”
—Mussolini, Milan, December 1944
But the pressure on Trump is not coming from an external threat to the country, it’s coming from inside of himself. That’s why he is behaving like a man under siege, when in reality, nothing of the sort is going on. It’s also partially why, in my view, this moment seems so surreal.
You’re seeing the federal government mirror the leader’s emotions outward through his proxies and followers—a phenomenon I have called mimetic synchrony.
Nuclear Positive Feedback Loop
The big structural problem as I see it is that while people like Mussolini had external negative feedback to slow them down, there is very little other than Trump’s own mental condition providing friction to his infinite need for dominance and power.
Mussolini’s decline had brakes: Allied armies, material shortages, partisan resistance. Trump’s has none. He commands 5,000 nuclear weapons and the most powerful military in history, with the only governor on his escalation being his own damaged mind.
On Friday, Trump will meet Vladimir Putin, without preconditions—and without Zelenskyy. He will meet Putin in Alaska, a state that Putin and Russian nationalists consider their property. The only place that would have been a greater gift to Putin for a meeting would have been Moscow.
According to reports, and Trump’s own words, he and Putin have already started cutting off pieces of Ukraine for a “land swap” which includes Donetsk oblast. It’s no coincidence that would include Ukraine giving up some of its most fortified lines on the battlefield. This entire theater is just a way for Putin buy time, lick his wounds, and get ready for the kill.
Zelenskyy will not accede to these demands, partly because he lawfully can’t according to Ukraine’s constitution, which sets up a situation where Trump and Putin can point to Ukraine together as the obstructive party to the “negotiations.” Since Trump will not get what he wants from the meeting, which will accelerate his spiral, Trump will almost certainly abuse American power to try to extract a concession from Zelenskyy and continue his decades-long submission to the Russians and Vladimir Putin. I shudder to think where this leads.
Everything Is Psycho-history Now
If I did not understand the deeper psychological dynamics at play, I might be as wide-eyed and confused as much of the media and the public appears to be. There is still a suspended disbelief, a reflex to treat this behavior as somehow political when it is not. This leads to confusion, and therefore, inaction.
Trump’s siege of Washington is a siege of his own mind, and recognizing that is essential to understanding both the cause and the danger. History may have ended, but psycho-history—the study of how individual pathology reshapes nations—has just begun. It’s all psycho-history now.
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What an interesting perspective, @Jim Stewartson. I believe two things can be true here: Trump is dealing with his own demons and it is also a distraction, along with the Putin summit, from the Epstein files and his collapsing popularity.
What -- precisely -- does it mean to be in command of the D.C. police force? Will Bondi be assigning officers to shifts in assigned areas? Or will she be telling the current commanders to keep on doing what they have been doing so well?