Overview

• Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Fox Business that D.C. residents are quietly thanking federalized officers and telling them they feel safe walking their neighborhoods.
• President Trump has claimed people are going out to dinner again and that restaurants are busier, but OpenTable data reported by The Hill shows seated diners in Washington fell sharply last week, including 31 percent on Wednesday and 20 percent on Saturday.
• HuffPost reports OpenTable measured a 24 percent decline in D.C. restaurant attendance for the week of Aug. 11–17 compared with the same period a year earlier.
• Trump invoked D.C.’s Home Rule Act to federalize local policing and deploy National Guard troops, a move met by protests and legal challenges from city leaders.
• After D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued, the administration kept MPD Chief Pamela Smith in place, scrapped the city’s sanctuary policies to enable ICE cooperation, and Bondi cited nearly 400 arrests since last Monday, including 137 over the weekend.