CAPITAL COUP: President Trump yesterday announced that he’s taking control of the Metropolitan Police in Washington and sending in the National Guard to quell what he claims is out of control crime in the nation’s capital city.

  “This is liberation day in DC and we’re going to take our capital back, we’re taking it back,” Trump said at a morning press conference. Flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Biondi, Trump said, “In addition I’m deploying the National Guard to help re-establish law, order and public safety in Washington DC.

  Bondi declared that crime in Washington ends right now.

  The President has the legal authority to do this. Trump claims there’s a crisis of crime in DC even though the Metropolitan Police say it has reached a 30-year low. Bondi would be put in charge of the police for at least 30 days and as many as 130 FBI agents will be on patrol.

  DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb in a statement slammed Trump’s DC power grab. “The Administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful. There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year.” 

  Mayor Muriel Bowser was not warned of Trump’s plans and delivered an even-handed expression of her discontent. “While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” she said at a news conference.

  Trump also mentioned a list of major cities from Boston to Los Angeles that he claims have a crime crisis and warned that they might be next to fall under his control. “It’s a natural instinct as a real estate person,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he compared his envisioned makeover of Washington to trimming the White House in gold. “I was very good at that, and I was very good at fixing things up. I like fixing things up.”

ECON 101: The Consumer Price Index to be released this morning is forecast to have risen 2.8 percent from the same time last year. That would be the fastest annual acceleration in five months.

  That’s inflation, probably fed by President Trump’s tariffs. This could encourage the Federal Reserve to do what the opposite of what Trump has been demanding, raise interest rates. 

THE MESS WITH TEXAS: Republicans in the Texas legislature again yesterday were left without a quorum to vote on a partisan congressional redistricting map. Democratic lawmakers are remaining out of state to prevent the vote.

  President Trump is behind the effort to stack Congress, using the Texas legislature. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urged Trump in a letter Monday to abandon the scheme, telling the president he is “playing with fire” and “risking the destabilization of our democracy.”

CHARGED: Ford Motors announced yesterday at their Louisville Assembly Plant that the company will retool the factory to make a midsize and affordable electric pickup truck that would sell in the $30,000 range.

  Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning and the Chevrolet Silverado EV both start at around $50,000 and the cheapest Rivian is more than $70,000. Interestingly, Ford is committing billions despite President Trump’s denunciation of electric vehicles, as well as failing to make money on previous models.

THE WAR ROOM: Israeli planes and tanks kept bombarding eastern areas of Gaza City overnight, killing at least 11 people.

  The families of Israeli hostages who’ve been held for more than a year and a half in Gaza are calling for a nationwide strike  to protest the Israeli security cabinet’s decision to take over Gaza City. They will be joined by the October 7 Council, which represents families of soldiers killed at the start of the war, as well as “hundreds” of companies and “thousands of citizens who have declared they will take the day off.” 

IVY LEAGUE: Harvard and the Trump administration are reported to be  close to a legal settlement in which the University would  agree to spend $500 million in exchange for the restoration of billions of dollars in federal research funding, The NY Times reports.

  Trump has cracked down on Harvard and other universities in an effort to force an end to their diversity, equity programs while claiming they have failed to stop antisemitism on campus.

  Harvard would agree to spend $500 million on vocational and educational programs and research over a period of years. Harvard has insisted that any agreement cannot infringe on the university’s academic freedom.

THE SPIN RACK: One person is dead and two are unaccounted for after an explosion at a steel plant in Pittsburgh. Ten others were injured. —  A gunman killed three people including a child outside a Target store in Austin, Texas, yesterday before stealing two cars and ultimately being captured. The shooter is described as having a history of mental health problems. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Taylor Swift announced that she’s releasing her 12^th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” Former boyfriends beware.

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