District of Columbia CPUSA report presented by Dante to the CPUSA National Committee meeting of July 11, 2026.

August 11 commences one year since the military and federal occupation of the capital city, Washington, DC. Since then, over 20,000 of our immigrant neighbors have been kidnapped and detained by federal immigration law enforcement, and Black youth have been harassed at metro stops by local police and National Guard troops for being out past curfew hours. As of today, close to 5,000 National Guard troops are now patrolling DC’s streets, not just the downtown areas near federal buildings and the White House, but residential areas stretching into uptown and the east side of the district.

The surge of military troops now has the backing of over 24 governors, including six Democratic governors, three of whom have since pulled out. This includes the Michigan and Minnesota governors, who each sent over 100 troops, as well as neighboring Maryland, North Carolina, Hawai’i and the US Virgin Islands. The Kentucky governor immediately pulled his one guardsman out of the district after a brief backlash, and as of July 7, Minnesota, Maryland and North Carolina are also recalling their troops.

Free DC, alongside veterans organizations, has launched a summer campaign to get the National Guard out of the district, focusing on the hypocrisy of the Democratic governors’ appeasement of the fascist Trump administration’s “Safe and Beautiful” Joint Task Force, led by Hitler-inspired Stephen Miller and Christian nationalist Pete Hegseth — two people who have attempted military occupations in other states, including California, Illinois, Oregon and Minnesota, but succeeded in Tennessee, Louisiana and DC.

The Trump administration has also hijacked the America 250 celebrations in DC, transforming them into “Freedom 250” by removing the leaders of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and installing the leader behind the January 6 rally. This resulted in the failed so-called Great American State Fair, which these National Guardsmen are supposedly “protecting” — alongside indicting people for touching the algae bloom in the reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial.

Our district leadership is urging the Party, particularly in Michigan, but also clubs in Republican-led states like Louisiana, Georgia, Indiana, West Virginia, South Carolina and Florida, to frequently advocate alongside other pro-democracy organizations for their troops to be sent back to their states. For example, Georgia has nearly 800 troops in DC, more than the deployment of DC’s own National Guard.

We must end the military occupation of DC immediately and view this as equal in importance to the struggles against US imperialism and militarism abroad and to cutting the bloated Pentagon budget.

What was particularly appalling was that on July 4, a fascist march by Patriot Front went through the streets of DC, near Capitol Hill, which caught national media attention for the first time, likely due to the Trump government’s return and its embrace of fascism.

There is also some very exciting news coming out of DC.

A major progressive shift is taking hold in DC’s local government, with the first self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Janeese Lewis George, claiming victory in the Democratic primary with a largely guaranteed path to election in November.

There were also major wins for progressives and socialists up and down the ballot, for DC’s nonvoting delegate to the House and on DC’s thirteen-member council. This has raised concern among Republicans in Congress and the Trump White House.

Prior to the election, Trump had been threatening a federal takeover of DC if Lewis George won. After her primary victory, he posted on Truth Social claiming that Lewis George is a communist who will destroy Washington, DC. Our Party in DC rejects this red-baiting as an attempt to divide people and to install something akin to a 1990s-style control board.

Amid these continuing semi-colonial attacks on our local self-governance, we need sustained advocacy from Party districts around the country to support DC home rule and to fight for statehood. Our national leadership recently signed on to a new campaign named Together for DC, a DC-led national campaign that trains ambassadors around the country to position DC statehood as a key democratic issue in the fight against fascism. We urge Party leaders in districts around the country to join this campaign in the coming months and years to help make statehood a reality for DC.

With the fights around redistricting in the South and the further encroachment on our political rights, DC statehood should become a greater priority for our movements and garner more national attention.

Image: Fred Barr / CPUSA