Phillip Comments On Trump’s Plans In DC

By
Mark Stevens
-

Abby Phillip probably thought she was landing a sharp jab when she opened her CNN roundtable by likening Donald Trump to Batman, swooping into Washington, D.C., to “take over” the police force. Instead, she may have just handed the former president his next meme-fueled nickname—and Trump supporters are already running with it.


The comparison came as Phillip teed up discussion of Trump’s decision to invoke Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, effectively federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department and bringing in federal reinforcements, including the National Guard, to combat a wave of violent crime in the capital. “Donald Trump makes himself Batman and the nation’s capital is Gotham City,” she said. “The President of the United States has declared himself Crime Fighter in Chief, and he’s taking over Washington’s police force.”


Phillip framed it as “unsettling and unprecedented,” echoing D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s objections. But within minutes of the segment airing, social media lit up with a very different tone. MAGA voters embraced the imagery, flooding X with memes of Trump in the cape and cowl—often with Vice President JD Vance rendered as a grinning Robin.


“I voted for this,” one user wrote alongside an AI-generated Trump-as-Batman portrait. Another posted, “I’m whatever Gotham needs me to be,” with the Dark Knight’s silhouette swapped for Trump’s profile. Others simply called Phillip’s remark a moment of accidental truth-telling.


Longtime Trump watchers were quick to recall that this isn’t the first time he’s worn the Batman mantle—at least rhetorically. Years ago, when a child asked him if he was Batman, Trump didn’t hesitate: “I am Batman!”

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR