Ken Martin, head of the Democratic National Committee, counters Trump threat to federalize D.C.: Glynn Wilson

BREAKING NEWS EXCLUSIVE REPORT –

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump is running an authoritarian regime and his threat to orchestrate a federal takeover of the nation’s capital city is as unconstitutional as much of what his administration is doing, according to the head of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, who spoke to a small crowd at a cookout here on Saturday.

“It’s unconstitutional what’s he’s doing, weaponizing the government against its people,” he said. “We’re going to stand up and fight back. We’ve got to do everything we can to put a check on this guy’s power. He’s shown the American people how dangerous he is. This is just another example of what he’s trying to do to destroy our constitution.”

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In his remarks to the crowd, Martin said the issue is not about partisan values, but American values, “the things that always connected us regardless of ideology, regardless of party. Things like respect for our Constitution. Respect for the rule of law. Respect for due process.”

“The idea that we would stand with our allies around the world and always defend and protect emerging democracies,” he added. “There’s one party right now that’s completely thrown those values, those American values, into the dust bin of history. There’s another party that’s standing up for them and that’s the Democratic Party.”

He pointed out that we just celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, and will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States next year.

Related: Spider Martin Photography Exhibit Opens on the 60th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

“What is happening in D.C. right now, and what’s happening around this country, is the surest sign of an authoritarian regime,” Martin said. “We have a president who is trampling on the rights of citizens throughout this country.”

There were rumors that Mayor Muriel Bowser was going to show up and speak to the D.C. Democrats at a federal park near Fort Dupont, where the party was holding its annual cookout. She was a no show, and so far has remained mum on Trump’s threats, declining to comment when asked about it.

There are reports that Trump has a press conference planned on Monday to announce more threats to position federal police officers and even National Guard troops in the district in a show of force against crime, he says. His threats of a federal takeover came in the wake of a report that a member of DOGE working for the Social Security Administration, a 19-year-old Elon Musk hacker recruit named Edward Coristine going by the nickname “Big Balls,” was assaulted in an alleged attempted car jacking.

The mayor is in a tough spot, since Congress could jeopardize the limited home rule power she has, along with the city council. The District has no Senator, and a House delegate representing the District has no vote in Congress. The threat is not imminent, since House Speaker Mike Johnson sent members home in a month-long recess in August to avoid more questions, hearings and demands for the release of all the legal files on pedophile pimp and Trump friend Jeffrey Epstein.

Bowser has already had to cave in to Trump demands to remove a Black Lives Matter mural painted on a street leading up to the White House back in March. She now faces a demand in the negotiations to bring the Washington professional football team back to the district. Trump wants the team to drop the new name Commanders and bring back the Redskins, a name so unpopular that team support and revenue had dropped significantly until the owner sold the team after facing corruption and sexual harassment charges. The new owners changed the name as racist.

Trump made his threats in a social media post on Tuesday, sharing a photograph that appeared to show Coristine lying in the street bleeding, battered and shirtless. Trump claimed crime in the nation’s capital is “totally out of control,” though the city’s crime rates have been falling, according to F.B.I. statistics compiled before Trump came into office.

Bowser has mentioned the city’s falling crime rates. In January, officials announced that violent crime in the city had reached a 30-year low, with a 26 percent decline this year compared to 2024. Homicides in the city are also down 13 percent, even after a 32 percent drop last year.

“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City,” Trump said.

He claimed young people in the city do not fear the consequences if they commit crimes, and juveniles do make up a majority of the arrests for robbery and carjacking, according to reports. In April, Mayor Bowser announced the creation of a special police unit specifically dedicated to preventing and responding to juvenile crime.

“The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14,” Trump said in his social media post and later in a statement picked up by television channels.

While Trump did not identify Coristine in his post, Musk soon posted about the incident and identified his little protégé on X: “It is time to federalize D.C.,” he said.

Trump has threatened the idea of a federal takeover since the earliest weeks of his second term, a threat bolstered by legislation introduced by congressional Republicans who want to impose their policy agenda on the city’s Democrat-led government. The city has had a limited degree of self-government since the Home Rule Act of 1973.

So far, Congress and the Trump administration have taken a series of smaller bites out of Washington’s autonomy, including handing the city an unexpected $1.1 billion budget hole and creating a federal “D.C. Safe and Beautiful” task force to work with local police officers.

Coristine played an early role in beginning to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development until a number of racist tweets were discovered. He was fired from that job over it, but somehow managed to come back and got a job working for Social Security.

Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old software engineer going by the nickname “Big Balls,” claims he was assaulted in an alleged attempted car jacking.

Police Report

Police officers arrested two 15-year-old suspects at the scene, a boy and a girl, both from Maryland, according to police. Officials said the episode happened in the early morning hours on Sunday in an upscale neighborhood less than two miles from the White House. The two teenagers were charged with unarmed carjacking, while police said they were seeking additional suspects.

Coristine was with his “significant other” when the 10 young people approached them, according to the police report. He told officers that he pushed his girlfriend into the car “for her safety” and then “turned to deal with the suspects” before being attacked.

Police officers patrolling the area interrupted the assault, according to previous reports.

Because the suspects are minors, the office of the District of Columbia attorney general will handle the case. The district has strict confidentiality protections for juvenile crime.

“No one who lives in, works in, or visits D.C. should experience this,” Brian Schwalb, the District of Columbia’s attorney general, said in a statement. “It is horrific and disturbing.”

Responding on cable news, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, who grew up in D.C., blasted Trump for the threat.

“You know, as a native Washingtonian and who has family who still live here in the city, I’m just kind of sick of this,” he said.

Steele decried people who come into D.C. and think they can “do whatever they want” and “strip away the rights of the citizens.” He noted that Washington residents “do not have the same rights as every other American” since they do not have voting representation in the Senate, and their sole House delegate cannot vote on final legislation.

Steele advised “all you wannabes who want to think you can control D.C.” to “just go walk through neighborhoods and understand how people actually live and raise their families here.” He said Trump’s threat to federalize D.C. “strikes very personal” for the city’s more than 700,000 residents.

The “Weeknight” co-host acknowledged the federal government does have some control over the city but said the president shouldn’t “crack down” on the residents of D.C.

“Just back the hell up, President Trump,” Steele said.

“Here you have this man who couldn’t even run a casino, thinking somehow he’s going to run D.C.?” he said. “The only thing Donald Trump knows about D.C. is the White House, and we’ve seen what he’s done to that, right?”

About Ken Martin

Kenneth Nathan Martin (born July 17, 1973) is an American politician serving since 2025 as chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Martin formerly served as chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, and a vice chair of the DNC.

Wikipedia: Ken Martin

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