Spring in D.C. is pure magic, with cherry blossoms in bloom and tourists flooding the streets. The city couldn’t be more alive. So, naturally, President Trump picked this moment to declare D.C. in need of saving with his “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” order. Safe from what? Beautiful by whose standards? The D.C. I know it doesn’t need a Trumpian makeover. The D.C. I see daily is already full of brilliance, strength and resilience.
Trump’s new “Safe and Beautiful” Task Force is not about protecting D.C. It’s a thinly veiled attack on self-governing, multiracial, progressive cities. The same cities he once referred to as “horribly run” and “filthy.” When he talks about “cleaning up” D.C., he means forcibly removing unhoused people from encampments. When he talks about “public safety,” he means more police and harsher tactics that don’t prevent crime.
It’s clear who he does not consider beautiful — and who he’s trying to erase. It’s the presence of Black and Brown people, immigrant communities, and those experiencing poverty. It’s the same racialized lens that sees African nations, Haiti and El Salvador as “shithole countries,” and that admires White, Scandinavian homogeneity while dismissing our city’s strength in diversity.
This isn’t about cherry blossoms or clean parks. This is a war on cities and communities that don’t look like his voter base. Just as President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs was, in fact, a war on Black people, Trump’s war on urban America is a war on self-determination, culture and power in the hands of the people.
D.C. raises its taxes, funds its schools and defines its values. The District of Columbia may not be a state, but it is a self-governed community with a distinct voice. It is a fiscally well-run city, as evidenced by clean audits, balanced budgets and stellar credit ratings. It doesn’t need a task force imposed by a man who neither understands us nor respects its people.
We know what safety looks like. We know what beauty looks like. It looks like go-go music echoing through U Street. It looks like Ethiopian restaurants in Shaw, Black entrepreneurs in Anacostia, and students marching for justice. It looks like immigrant communities contributing intellectual energy, economic vitality and cultural richness to every corner of our city.
This is not just a matter of principle. It’s a matter of precedent. If this overreach goes unchecked in D.C., it will spread. What would Nashville say if the federal government sent a task force to clear its streets and dictate local policy? Or Memphis? Or Phoenix? If you believe in local control and the rights of communities to define their values, then you must stand with D.C. An attack on our autonomy is an attack on every city in America.
Trump’s version of “beautification” contains no real solutions. While he sends in the National Park Service to clear encampments, he does nothing to address the federal housing policies and economic inequality that created widespread homelessness in the first place. If we want to make D.C. safer and more beautiful, expand affordable housing, improve mental health services, and invest in the lives of the people Trump claims to protect.
The Black church has always stood in the gap for our people. We are self-funded, unbought and unbossed. And that independence gives us not just freedom but responsibility to speak up when our communities are threatened.
We call on every city, municipality and community leader to remember that if they can do it to D.C., they can do it to you. If we stand together, center the most vulnerable in our decisions, and work toward a shared vision of equity, beauty and dignity, then we will not only resist this overreach but also thrive despite it.
Trump is a temporary resident of D.C. We are permanent stewards of this city, and we alone define its grace, power and possibility.
