On August 11, in a show of force, President Trump deployed the National Guard and hundreds of federal officers in Washington, D.C., to combat crime. This move is not only inefficient for what it claims to accomplish, (reestablishing “law, order, and public safety”) but also a warning of his use of power.  To do this, Trump invoked section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which states that “special conditions of an emergency nature” allow the president to take over the Metropolitan Police Department (MDP). In this case, the conditions that informed Trump’s decision are the “crime, bloodshed,…

Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine on Sep. 7, targeting a building in Ukraine’s governing district. The attack occurred after several negotiations, promises and meetings with other world leaders by President Trump to end the war in Ukraine over several weeks. NATO fighter jets shot down Russian drones found in Poland that same week.  Israel struck Qatar with a military attack to target Hamas officials who were attempting to sign a US-backed cease-fire deal to stop attacks on Gaza. Israel also launched an attack in Yemen, adding to Israel’s ongoing violence in the West Bank and other Middle Eastern countries.  These…

The U.S. federal government shut down on October 1, resulting in the now second-longest federal government shutdown since President Trump’s first term in Dec. 2018. The end of the shutdown is still unclear as Congress reaches day 30 with no resolution to the legislative impasse. While lawmakers have been playing the blame game, American citizens have been paying the price. Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress failed to compromise on federal spending appropriation bills by the end of FY2025, resulting in a government shutdown. The House of Representatives approved a continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21, later…