With D.C.’s self-governance under threat, the city’s paper of record is positioned to play a critical role. Right off the bat, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher sounded the alarm about Trump’s actions, telling the New Yorker, “This is troops-in-the-streets, shades-of-authoritarian-rule bad.”

The next day, however, Fisher sounded like a different person in his Post column. Trump was transformed from authoritarian to astute-but-flawed leader; despite his “uncanny knack for identifying the problems that really bother voters,” Trump rarely translates that “into helpful solutions.” Regarding D.C. crime — Trump’s justification for his power grab — Fisher wrote that Trump

instinctively understands that the city feels unsafe, that the now-common sight of teens riding presumably stolen ATVs down D.C.’s grand avenues, popping wheelies and taunting motorists; the ubiquity of shoplifters … and the horror stories about violent carjackings — all this makes residents feel disrespected and unprotected.

The close partnership between Bezos and Trump marks a departure from Trump’s first term, when Bezos stood up to the president, as did his paper’s opinion page. When Trump put troops on D.C.’s streets in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests, a Washington Post editorial headline read, “Trump’s Threats to Deploy Troops Move America Closer to Anarchy.”

The next day, the Post’s Philip Kennicott noted how the Guard “looked like outsiders, like a colonial force” on D.C.’s streets. A Post op-ed by Benjamin Haas and Kori Schake said:

The image of soldiers controlling America’s streets and engaging in law enforcement activity is evocative of the conduct of authoritarian countries from whom the United States takes pride in maintaining a distinction.