Reminder: Washington D.C. is a federal, not state, enclave

Judge orders Trump administration to end National Guard deployment in DC

The judge said President Trump's deployment of the National Guard in D.C. is unlawful.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to end its monthslong deployment of National Guard troops to help police the nation’s capital.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded that President Donald Trump’s military takeover in Washington, D.C., illegally intrudes on local officials’ authority to direct law enforcement in the district. She put her order on hold for 21 days to allow for an appeal, however.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to challenge the Guard deployments. He asked the judge to bar the White House from deploying Guard troops without the mayor’s consent while the lawsuit plays out.

Half of the federal government is clustered in the nation’s capital: Agencies, museums, and swanky, dark restaurants where lobbyists can pass cash to their favored congressmen and influential congressional staffers and reporters can buy leaks — if the President determines that street crime, muggings, assaults, carjackings and murders pose an imminent danger to the operation of the government, that’s his call, not that of some unelected Biden appointee.