I'm DC's Shadow Senator. What Trump Is Doing Should Terrify All of Us.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

When President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he was taking over Washington's Metropolitan Police Department and sending in National Guard troops, those of us who live in DC immediately understood how frightening things were about to get.

By law—because DC lacks statehood—the president can take over MPD for 30 days; we don't know how long this National Guard deployment will run. This means DC's 700,000 residents will live the next month under a police force that has been openly encouraged by the president to commit acts of brutality against civilians and that is simply much more poorly run. We will also have to deal with an “enhanced presence” of federal security agencies throughout the city. We don't yet know exactly what shape Trump's MPD takeover will take, but it's entirely possible that people will die as a result of these actions.

Many are likely wondering how President Trump can take control of DC's police force. A short way to describe a long history of oppression is this: Washington, DC, has no voting representation in Congress, despite the fact that our population is greater than that of Vermont or Wyoming, and that DC residents pay more federal taxes per capita than any state . Congress can overturn or change our local laws before they take effect and can abolish our local government any time it wants to. Until DC becomes a state, the federal government will continue to have the final say over DC's local affairs.

The District does have an elected local government with limited power to govern the city, and locally elected officials who fight for our sovereignty. For example, voters in DC elect a nonvoting US representative and two nonvoting US senators. These “shadow” senators and the representative work to achieve DC statehood, prevent congressional interference in DC affairs, and advocate before Congress for laws that protect DC's interests. I am Washington, DC's newest senator, elected in November of last year.

Why does DC need—and deserve—voting representation in Congress?

Because it is Congress—not the president—that wields the most power over DC The president and his appointees acknowledged as much in his press conference calling on Congress to take multiple actions to impose Republicans' will on Washingtonians—such as repealing DC's no-cash-bail policy (there is already a presumption in DC that people accused of violent crimes remain jailed pending trial) and ensuring the US attorney can try 14-year-olds as adults. Anyone who cares about the fate of our country should be concerned about how Congress is and has been seeking to answer that charge.

Over the past few years, congressional Republicans have become obsessed with DC—proposing dozens of federal bills that would dictate our local laws. The irony is that they barely know a single thing about Washington. I'm not sure that they or the president see us as fellow Americans—as hardworking parents, veterans, schoolchildren, etc.—with lives just as textured as those of Americans anywhere else. Instead, Trump and Republicans see us as a stand-in for the cities they distrust: the urbanites who tend to vote against Trump. It's harder for them to interfere with the way that the leaders in New York City or Detroit or Phoenix run their cities. But because they can control Washington, DC, they have turned us into test subjects in an unprecedented attempt to show how to run cities in line with the MAGA agenda.

In mid-July, I sat in the audience for a House Appropriations subcommittee meeting where congressional Republicans were attempting to tack on more than a dozen odious federal budget “riders” who would control the District—for example, proposing extremely lenient concealed carry policies and encouraging DC employers to discriminate against women who get abortions—and because I don't have a vote, I could do nothing but watch and sit on my hands. I was the only DC elected representative in the room, and I couldn't speak up about these matters relating directly to my constituents.

Congressional Republicans have also advanced three bills that would repeal local DC laws. The bills would repeal noncitizen voting in strictly local elections, repeal important police reforms the DC Council adopted in 2022, and dictate how the DC government must work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some Republicans want to go even further: A few Republicans in the House and Senate have introduced bills that would abolish DC's local government altogether and allow Congress to rule by fiat over the city.

But even if you don't care that 700,000 Americans are systematically excluded from their own democracy, what Trump and Congressional Republicans are doing should scare you. Because what they're doing to us is just the beginning.

Trump said at his press conference, “We have other cities that are very bad. … We're not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further. We're starting very strongly with DC.”

They are starting with DC, but not ending with us. The president has made it clear that his administration is coming for every blue city.