Outside the Beltway

President Donald Trump thanks the crowd after remarks at the Salute to America Celebration, Thursday, July 3, 2025, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa.
Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok

Troops as Props

This is all for show.

Steven L. Taylor
10

Comments

If the issue was actually the notion that the National Guard could be used to lessen crime in DC, probably the least efficacious place to deploy those assets would be the National Mall.

But, if the goal is security theater, the absolute best place to place these assets would be the National Mall.

The fact that people are taking tourist photos is just an illustration of the silliness of it all.

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10 responses to “Troops as Props”

  1. Jc Avatar
    Jc

    Exactly. Completely unserious administration. But they know their audience, and that audience eats it up. Media does a great job of thinking they are informing us, but they just glamorize it and saturate us with it until it becomes normalized. Once your government becomes unserious, it becomes hard to take it serious, then it’s just a joke and then one day you are like, “Hey, don’t we have a Constitution or something?” But then it’s too late, you are paddling up a raging river. Hope I am just being melodramatic

    6
  2. Ken_L Avatar
    Ken_L

    The ridiculous display at Macarthur Park was the same, complete with mounted police and zero “illegals”. But it all makes great media material, crowding out any potential stories embarrassing to the regime.

    7
  3. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    I do wonder if there’s going to be some sort of mass sweep of homeless encampments. I think those, more so than actual “crime,” are what got Trump’s attention.

    5
  4. Charley in Cleveland Avatar
    Charley in Cleveland

    More reality show programming by the Carnival Barker in Chief who knows that the media will never stop chasing the metaphorical squirrel. Unserious administration + unserious media = teetering democracy.

    5
  5. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    It’s only a show if one perceives such occurrences as entertainment. For the rest of us it is a demonstration of our nation’s constitutional construct evaporating before our very eyes.

    4
  6. DK Avatar
    DK

    Trump pardoned and released Jan 6 terrorist filth back onto the streets, pushes failed policies that kill jobs –increasing poverty and thus, increasing crime. We’re to believe Trump Republicans care about reducing crime? Yeah right.

    Why didn’t job-destroying incompetént Trump deploy the National Guard when his Jan 6 criminals desecrated our democracy by sacking the Capitol? Trump insisted that was Pelosi’s call, that he had no power to intervene as his MAGA thugs attacked Capitol police.

    Was the Epstein-bestie pedo president lying then, or is he lying now?

    5
  7. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @James Joyner: I definitely expect that to happen.

    1
  8. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Chris: Don’t get me wrong: I am not downplaying it.

    2
  9. Mr. Prosser Avatar
    Mr. Prosser

    @James Joyner: @Steven L. Taylor: The question is how brutal will the sweeps be? Round-ups and forced removal with vehicles and heavy equipment aren’t going to go over well.

    1
  10. steve222 Avatar
    steve222

    IIRC MacArthur deployed troops to sweep out the bonus army, even those who were staying private land where they had permission to stay. Conservatives ie Trump supporters will support nearly any use of violence/force against people they dont like and the homeless are part of the group they now detest.

    Steve

    4

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