Attorney General Pam Bondi terminated a Department of Justice paralegal Friday after the employee repeatedly made obscene gestures and cursed at National Guard members stationed in Washington, D.C., Fox News reported.
Elizabeth Baxter, who worked in the department’s environmental division, lost her position following an investigation into multiple incidents that occurred this month at the DOJ’s 4CON building in the NoMa district, according to Fox News. Security footage captured Baxter arriving at work on Aug. 18 just after 8:20 a.m., where she bragged to a security guard about flipping off a guardsman at Metro Center Metro Stop.
“F–k the National Guard,” she told the guard, the New York Post reported. Later that day, cameras recorded her demonstrating the gesture to department security personnel while exclaiming “F–k you!” The behavior continued on Aug. 25 when Baxter again boasted to security staff that she hated the National Guard and had told them to “F–k off!”
“Today, I took action to terminate a DOJ employee for inappropriate conduct towards National Guard service members in DC,” Bondi said, the outlet reported. “This DOJ remains committed to defending President Trump’s agenda and fighting to make America safe again. If you oppose our mission and disrespect law enforcement — you will NO LONGER work at DOJ.”
Bondi’s termination letter removed Baxter from her GS-11 Paralegal Specialist position effective immediately, according to the outlet. The firing follows the termination of Sean Charles Dunn, another DOJ paralegal who allegedly threw a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent earlier this month. Dunn faces misdemeanor charges that could result in up to one year in jail. (RELATED: Pam Bondi Reveals Guy Who Allegedly Threw Subway Sub At Officer Worked For DOJ — He’s Now Out Of A Job)
The Trump administration recently deployed hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops to Washington’s streets as part of efforts to reduce crime in the district.
https://dailycaller.com/2025/08/30/pam-bondi-doj-national-guard-soldiers-washington
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Sunday that the Trump administration plans to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in major cities, including Chicago.
Asked about plans to expand ICE operations in Chicago specifically, Noem told CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” “We’ve already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago and throughout Illinois and other states, making sure that we’re upholding our laws, but we do intend to add more resources to those operations.”
Asked about what an expansion of ICE operations would look like in Chicago and whether it would involve a mobilization of National Guard troops to assist with immigration raids and arrests, Noem demurred, saying, “That always is a prerogative of President [Donald] Trump and his decision. I won’t speak to the specifics of the operations that are planned in other cities.”
Her remarks come one day after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order directing his city’s legal department to explore ways to counter a potential surge in federal law enforcement and National Guard troops to Illinois.
During a press conference Saturday, Johnson warned that Chicago officials had “received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our cities see some type of militarized activity by the federal government.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration directed federal law enforcement officers, including those employed by ICE, to assist police in Washington, D.C., with crime-fighting operations. That surge of resources included thousands of National Guard troops who were deployed to the nation’s capital with the stated goal of lowering crime rates.
Following the movement of troops and law enforcement officers to Washington, Trump threatened to send federal officers and troops to other major American cities, including Baltimore.
Later in the Sunday interview, Noem was asked whether Boston would be one of the cities where the federal government would surge immigration enforcement agents.
“There’s a lot of cities that are dealing with crime and violence right now, and so we haven’t taken anything off the table,” she said, adding later: “I’d encourage every single big city — San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, whatever they are — if they want to help make their city safer, more prosperous, allow people the opportunity to walk in freedom like the people of Washington, D.C., are now … they should call us.”
Other Democratic officials, including a group of over a dozen governors, have condemned plans to deploy troops to their states.
In a statement last week, they said, “Whether it’s Illinois, Maryland and New York or another state tomorrow, the President’s threats and efforts to deploy a state’s National Guard without the request and consent of that state’s governor is an alarming abuse of power, ineffective, and undermines the mission of our service members.”
And in an interview that aired Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said, “We don’t want troops on the streets of American cities. That’s un-American. Frankly, the president of the United States ought to know better.”
Pritzker also accused the Trump administration of targeting states run by Democrats rather than those run by Republicans, telling CBS, “Notice he never talks about where the most violent crime is occurring, which is in red states. … Their violent crime rates are much worse in other places, and we’re very proud of the work that we’ve done.”
Asked whether there are plans in place to deploy troops and federal law enforcement officials to states and cities run by Republicans, Noem said, “Absolutely.”
“Every single city is evaluated for what we need to do there to make it safer. So we’ve got operations that, again, I won’t talk about details on, but we absolutely are not looking through the viewpoint at anything we’re doing with a political lens,” she added.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is being mocked relentlessly after bizarrely claiming that Los Angeles “wouldn’t be standing today” if former President Donald Trump hadn’t deployed the National Guard.
During a Sunday morning appearance on Face the Nation, CBS host Ed O’Keefe asked Noem whether Trump would follow through on his threats to send federal troops into Chicago.
“I won’t speak to the specifics of the operations that are planned in other cities,” the former South Dakota governor began. “But I do know that L.A. wouldn’t be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action. That city would have burned down if left to the devices of the mayor and the governor of that state.”
Stunned, O’Keefe gave her a chance to walk it back, repeating:
“You said L.A. wouldn’t be standing, if not for these federal deployments?” But Noem doubled down.
“So many of those homes and businesses that were in downtown L.A. and in those areas were dealing with riots and violence, and coming in and bringing those federal law enforcement officers in was incredibly important to keeping peace,” she said. “And so we are grateful that President Trump was willing to send resources and people in in order to enforce the law.”
California Governor and certified online troll Gavin Newsom had a simple response: laughter.
Hahahahahhahahahahahahahaha https://t.co/sYbZRZcacV— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 31, 2025
“Hahahahahhahahahahahahahaha,” Newsom’s press office posted on X.
Others quickly piled on.
“There were protests in like three downtown blocks of L.A. over the course of a few days,” wrote Pod Save America co-host and California resident Tommy Vietor. “No one here wanted or needed troops on the streets—Kristi Noem is comically full of sh–, per usual.”
There were protests in like three downtown blocks of LA over the course of a few days. No one here wanted or needed troops on the streets. @KristiNoem is comically full of shit, per usual. https://t.co/fLhjSARpaA— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) August 31, 2025
“MRIs of Kristi Noem’s head showed nothing,” added journalist Keith Olbermann.
MRIs of @KristiNoem‘s head showed nothing pic.twitter.com/8FBNobYLHP— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) August 31, 2025
Noem’s comments come on the heels of Trump deploying thousands of National Guard troops into Democratic-led cities including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., with Chicago reportedly next on his list.
The administration claims the deployments are necessary to “liberate” residents from crime, arguing that Democratic leaders have allowed urban centers to become “war zones.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
At one point, a woman asks, “Why are people not getting due process? Why are immigrants not getting due process?” Moore’s answer went down like a lead balloon. “So, due process for a citizen and a non-citizen are different things.” He was drowned out by loud jeers and cries of “false!”
What a f*ck*ng retard! We are all — citizens and non-citizens alike — equal under the law.
A Republican congressman left a heated town hall via the back door after he was relentlessly laughed at and heckled while trying to defend President Trump.
Rep. Barry Moore was hammered with tough queries—and more than a few heckles—during a raucous town hall in Daphne, Alabama.
The tense showdown was captured in a 40-minute video from the advocacy group Indivisible Baldwin County. It shows Moore squirming under relentless questioning about Medicaid cuts, the closure of rural hospitals, Trump-era tariffs, immigration crackdowns, abortion bans, and even the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C..
Moore’s attempts to respond were drowned out with laughter and interruptions. At one point, the audience openly mocked his evasive answers.
By the end of the night, the Republican lawmaker had had enough, cutting things short and slipping away through an exit rather than facing his increasingly hostile crowd.
At one point, a woman asks, “Why are people not getting due process? Why are immigrants not getting due process?” Moore’s answer went down like a lead balloon. “So, due process for a citizen and a non-citizen are different things.” He was drowned out by loud jeers and cries of “false!”
Moore continued speaking into his mic, but he couldn’t be heard over the crowd’s reaction. Failing to restore calm, he turned to an aide who took the mic from him before he headed for the exit to chants of “shame!”
The question about due process provedto be the tipping point, but Moore had been grilled all night in Baldwin County, an area where proved toDonald Trump won 78.4 percent of the vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Asked what he viewed as Donald Trump’s “most meaningful” accomplishment, Moore cited border security. The audience responded with laughter, loud jeers, and chants of “Next question.” He was also accused of “lying” after asserting that Medicaid cuts in Trump’s megabill would apply only to undocumented immigrants.
Moore did not offer closing remarks or say good night as he exited the event in Daphne, a suburb of Mobile.
In an interview on Thursday on The Dale Jackson Show, a conservative Alabama podcast and radio program, Moore denied slipping out the back. “We left like any other event,” he said. “I think we tried to engage and answer questions, but unfortunately, it got hijacked.”
Moore added that he was “so calm” throughout the event and insisted he “doesn’t mind facing the heat head on.” He attributed the disruptions to “some of the same bad actors,” who he said he had seen at other appearances.
The Alabama congressman, first elected in 2020, is now running for Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s seat as Tuberville campaigns for governor.
Since Donald Trump re-entered the White House in January, numerous Republican lawmakers have faced intense backlash during in-person town halls. Rep. Warren Davidson was booed over Trump-sponsored policies in Ohio, and, amid sweeping DOGE cuts in February, Rep. Rich McCormick in Georgia was heckled for justifying Elon Musk’s work.
Rep. Mark Alford was the latest GOP lawmaker to host a contentious live event during the August recess. On Monday, voters at a town hall meeting in Missouri demanded that the Republican congressman denounce President Donald Trump’s “lies”—and told him to get his head “out of Trump’s a— .”
Moore did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The lights of half a dozen police cars bounced off buildings and the faces of 50 or so homeless adults as federal and D.C. officers lined up outside New York Avenue Presbyterian Church two blocks east of the White House.
Joyce Baucom leaned on her metal cane, knees still unsteady from a double replacement years earlier, and ducked under a tree to shelter from the rain.
Her 5-year-old Chihuahua-pit bull mix, Lil Mama, barked at nearby police officers until her body quaked.
Baucom and her 40-year-old son have been living on the streets for about a year, most recently near the church, a longtime safe harbor that serves the nearly 800 people living unsheltered on the streets of the nation’s capital, according to an annual count by the city. That night, a week into President Donald Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in the District, no one would be allowed to sleep nearby.
“You’re going to have to remove your things, okay?” a city worker told the crowd.
Lil Mama’s barks grew louder.
“Right now!” another city worker yelled over the dog.
The clearing that took place outside the church Aug. 18 was one of 50 that White House officials said this week have been executed by multiagency teams since Trump declared a crime emergency in D.C. on Aug. 11, ordered federal agents to patrol the streets and warned unhoused residents that they “have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.”
Trump’s scrutiny of street homelessness in the District has mobilized advocates, community members and even D.C. officials to open up additional shelter beds. But for many unhoused Washingtonians, the federal crackdown this month has felt more like a continuation of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s years-long push to remove visible homelessness from the city’s downtown — only now at an accelerated pace and backed by federal manpower.
The president’s crusade has crashed against the same reality that for years has derailed attempts to solve the city’s homelessness crisis: There are not enough services, subsidies or beds to house the thousands of adults and children in the District without permanent housing. Men and women pushed out of encampments by federal law enforcement this month told The Washington Post they have scrambled to find somewhere else to go. Some spent a night or two in a hotel, others in an emergency room. But most simply picked up their belongings and moved to another street corner, another patch of trees, another neighborhood, where they hoped federal agents would pass them by.
Baucom, a D.C. native and former custodian who spent years cleaning government buildings, has passed many nights along with her son and Lil Mama outside the church on New York Avenue — sometimes sleeping right on the concrete steps. The church is a day center for the unsheltered, a place where people can find regular meals, bathrooms, showers and case workers. But when the doors close at 5 p.m., many spend their nights in nearby alleys, on park benches or the church’s small triangle of grass.
As officers closed in around her, Baucom raised her voice to be heard over Lil Mama’s barking.
“Why y’all not giving me housing or putting me up in a hotel?” she said. “There’s nowhere to go.”
By the time the Trump administration directed law enforcement to remove homeless people from the nation’s capital, many of the District’s most prominent encampments had long been cleared by city or federal officials.
Since 2021, hundreds of homeless people have been forced to pack up and leave amid widespread clearings that dismantled the largest tent encampments in D.C. — under the NoMa overpass, on New Jersey Avenue, in parks near Union Station and blocks away from the White House — as well as countless small ones that consisted of one or two tents. D.C. officials have said the large encampments were unsanitary and made passersby and nearby business owners feel unsafe.
But forcing homeless individuals to move from site to site impedes their ability to get help and get housed, advocates and caseworkers have said. Belongings, important documents and even phones can get lost in the shuffle of an eviction. Moving to a different part of the city can mean crossing into the jurisdiction of a different nonprofit and force a restart of the outreach process with new case managers.
Shelley Byars, 47, has lived in nearly a dozen spots around the District in the past two years.
Although she has been approved for the Permanent Supportive Voucher program since July 2022, Byars was one of about 75 people who lived in McPherson Square until the National Park Service forcibly evicted them in early 2023. Since then, she has bounced around.
When Trump’s crackdown began, Byars had been living just outside George Washington Circle, a small park in Foggy Bottom that has at its center an equestrian statue of the nation’s first president. When federal agents last week instructed the homeless residents living there to clear out, Byars packed up her bags and moved — again.
“I mean what can I do about it?” Byars said recently, shrugging as she stood in line for a meal from Catholic volunteers. “Just more of the same.”
The Trump administration has threatened to fine or arrest those who refuse to move or go to a shelter. The White House said this week that of the people at the 50 encampments cleared by multiagency teams since the federal takeover began, two individuals were arrested; both were accused of assaulting police. The White House did not provide names or details on the incidents.
“President Trump is cleaning up D.C. to make it safe for all residents and visitors while ensuring homeless individuals aren’t out on the streets putting themselves at risk or posing a risk to others,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement to The Post. “Homeless people will have the opportunity to be taken to a homeless shelter or receive addiction and mental health services. This will make D.C. safer and cleaner for everyone.”
Byars landed last week next to an old neighbor: Daniel Kingery, a 64-year-old man who lived for years in the McPherson Square encampment.
Kingery doesn’t have a tent. He sleeps on a cart he has constructed to display political messages and challenges to authority.
He abhors what he sees as the criminalization of homelessness and, in 2023, refused to leave McPherson Square when police officers encircled the park and closed off its entry points. He was arrested and spent several weeks in jail.
Many of the city’s chronically unhoused residents who choose to live on the street do so because they have determined that shelters don’t work for them. Advocates call the main drivers of this “the four P’s”: property, partners, pets and, most recently, pandemic. Most of the city’s shelters are not able to accommodate opposite-sex partners, pets or many personal belongings. Following the coronavirus pandemic, many unhoused people became more leery of living in the close confines of congregate shelters.
Baucom had several reasons for sleeping on the street outside New York Avenue Presbyterian instead of in a shelter: There was Lil Mama. There were the half-dozen bags she carries with her. And there was her adult son, Jonathan. He has kidney failure and needs frequent dialysis treatments.
“He can’t go into a shelter in his condition,” Baucom said.
Back near McPherson, Kingery keeps a watchful eye. Groups of police and National Guard members have approached him in recent days, he said, but have only issued verbal warnings, encouraging him to move.
He has declined.
A week and a half into the federal government’s takeover, Bowser (D) stood in the basement of a new low-barrier shelter near Union Station built to house up to 190 adults — the majority of whom, D.C. officials said, will be brought in off the street — in small dorm-style apartments. But it won’t open until after Trump’s 30-day federal emergency is set to expire.
In the immediate term, the District has made more space for people at the city’s already-crowded shelters, an approach typically reserved for cold-weather months when sleeping outside can have deadly consequences.
“Our message today, as it is every day, is that there is shelter space available in Washington, D.C., and we encourage everyone to come inside,” Bowser said at the news conference.
This week, Bowser said that 81 additional people had come into the shelter system since the push began. City staff and volunteers also planned to fan out across the city Thursday night to track the number of unhoused people on the District’s streets, Bowser and administration officials said.
A week and a half into the federal government’s takeover, Bowser (D) stood in the basement of a new low-barrier shelter near Union Station built to house up to 190 adults — the majority of whom, D.C. officials said, will be brought in off the street — in small dorm-style apartments. But it won’t open until after Trump’s 30-day federal emergency is set to expire.
In the immediate term, the District has made more space for people at the city’s already-crowded shelters, an approach typically reserved for cold-weather months when sleeping outside can have deadly consequences.
“Our message today, as it is every day, is that there is shelter space available in Washington, D.C., and we encourage everyone to come inside,” Bowser said at the news conference.
This week, Bowser said that 81 additional people had come into the shelter system since the push began. City staff and volunteers also planned to fan out across the city Thursday night to track the number of unhoused people on the District’s streets, Bowser and administration officials said.
For years, the city’s homeless population has been in decline. According to the 2025 Point-In-Time count, the annual federally mandated census of unhoused people, there were 5,138 unhoused individuals sleeping in shelters and on the streets in 2025 — a 9 percent dip from the previous year and a 19 percent drop since 2020, when 6,380 homeless people were recorded.
Rachel Pierre, the acting director of the D.C. Department of Human Services, said the city has expanded shelter capacity to meet demand and will continue to do so for the duration of the federal emergency. No one, she added, has been denied a shelter bed since Aug. 8.
“It is still not illegal to be homeless,” Bowser said. “You cannot have camps, you cannot have tents, but it is not illegal to be homeless.”
Advocates, who have pushed the District to open additional shelter capacity and redouble its outreach, have said the city is not doing enough to get unhoused individuals out of harm’s way.
At the start of the federal crackdown, community members in Ward 2, which encompasses most of downtown, began asking unhoused people what would “make them feel safer” as the federal government’s reach into the District grew. The most popular responses they got, according to Ward 2 Mutual Aid organizer Hadley Ashford, 29, were people asking for transit cards and help spending a few nights off the streets.
In less than a week, the group collected more than $5,200 and was able to move 20 people into hotel rooms for a couple of nights at a time. The majority of those the group helped, Ashford said, refused to move into a shelter because they didn’t want to have to separate from pets or partners or family members. At least one individual was immunocompromised and did not want to be in a crowded facility.
“We just wanted to get people out of harm’s way in the immediate term,” she said. “Regardless of how many donations we’re getting in, this is not something we can continue to do forever. … The city needs to do more; they’re not providing enough services.”
Homeless advocates and service providers in surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia have not seen the surge of homeless people many expected amid the federal crackdown in D.C.
ohn Mendez, executive director of Bethesda Cares, which does homeless outreach in Montgomery County, Maryland, said they’ve instead seen unhoused people relying on public transportation — to try to stay out of sight and away from where federal officers might be doing sweeps.
In recent days, Byars has been uneasy straying too far from her camp, just in case. She knows what happens when officials decide to remove an encampment: Belongings get confiscated, sometimes trashed. Tents are leveled and thrown out. Important personal effects and documents can get lost.
Still, Byars said, she hopes she won’t have to move at all.
“I’ve talked to the National Guard, and they told me they’re here to protect the people of D.C.,” Byars said. “That should mean all the people. Right?”
Days after the clearing outside New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, bags, tents and people were already back along the sidewalk. The same cycle had set back in: They came for the day center, then, when it closed, many bedded down nearby.
Kingery has been sleeping on the same street corner, just feet away from where he once lived in McPherson Square’s sprawling homeless encampment, for more than a year.
Byars, who has been removed from every major homeless encampment in the District over the past three years, has decided to try her luck on the same block. It’s familiar territory: She also used to live in the park across the street.
When asked where she might go next, if the federal government’s crackdown forces her to pack up again, Byars shrugged.
That’s a problem for another time.
Baucom and her son spent two nights in a motel. The next night, she felt pain in her shoulders, and the pair landed in the emergency room. She got some sleep there.
By the next evening, Baucom was again sitting on the steps outside the church, waiting for nightfall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/08/29/trump-dc-homeless-encampments-cleared
