Leverage is often described as a matter of strength, but it is just as much a matter of position. A tool’s force depends on what it rests against — a structure that holds while pressure is applied. In political economy, those fixed points are consistency, time, and alignment.

The arrival of federal forces in Washington began not with the sound of sirens or the weight of an unfolding emergency, but with the president’s portrayal of the city as a lawless expanse, gripped by “roving mobs” and “bloodthirsty criminals.”