President plots expansion of crime crackdown as Pentagon chief says troops patrolling DC streets will be armed

Donald Trump has threatened to take his federal crackdown on crime and city cleanliness to New York and Chicago, as the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordered that national guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington DC under federal control will now be armed.

The US president talked to reporters in the Oval Office and said: “When ready, we will start in Chicago … Chicago is a mess.” He added that then the administration “will help with New York”, amid the controversial and aggressive federal efforts to control leading Democratic-voting cities, each of which has a Black mayor.

    • lividweasel@lemmy.world
      71·
      22 days ago

      Is it really a coup if they’re already in power? It’s a heavier grade of authoritarianism, but I don’t know if there is a single word that encapsulates it.

      • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
        9·
        22 days ago

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-coup

        A self-coup, also called an autocoup (from Spanish autogolpe) or coup from the top, is a form of coup d’état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power illegally through the actions of themselves or their supporters. The leader may dissolve or render powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assume extraordinary powers. Other measures may include annulling the constitution, suspending civil courts, and having the head of government assume dictatorial powers.

        From 1946 to the beginning of 2021, an estimated 148 self-coup attempts took place, 110 in autocracies and 38 in democracies.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
        8·
        22 days ago

        Yes, it’s a coup to take over our democracy and go completely authoritarian. Kind of like Jan 6th, they were in power at the time.