On Saturday in the US capital, where National Guard troops have been deployed since Trump declared a “crime emergency” in August, a thousands-strong protest march wound through downtown with participants demanding an end to the “occupation”.
Demonstrators in DC carried inverted US flags as they marched past the country’s national monuments, traditionally a symbol of a country facing existential peril.
Trump’s troop and federal agent deployments – which first began in June in Los Angeles, followed by Washington 0 have prompted legal challenges and protests, with critics calling them an authoritarian show of force.
Local officials in Los Angeles spoke out against the deployments and the violent tactics employed by ICE agents in Los Angeles, who often wore masks, drove in unmarked cars and chased down and snatched people from the streets without cause or warrants.
In addition to Chicago, Trump has threatened to replicate the surges in Democratic-led Baltimore and New Orleans.
On Friday, Trump signed an order changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, saying it sends “a message of victory” to the world.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth cheered the move, saying the US will decisively exact violence to reach its aims, without apology.
