By A liberal-run firm hired to stage political demonstrations has admitted to orchestrating much of the recent unrest in the nation’s capital. The revelation comes as demand for paid protesters has surged in the wake of President Donald Trump’s move to seize control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and call in National Guard troops, a federal intervention hailed by supporters as long overdue and condemned by critics as a dangerous overreach.
Adam Swart, CEO of Crowds on Demand—a company that specializes in supplying demonstrators—told Fox News Digital that inquiries for D.C.-based events have jumped roughly 400% from the same May-to-July period in 2024. Such spikes, he noted, are common during “high-stakes political moments.” Many of the requests, he said, aim to oppose Trump’s policies and highlight “government overreach,” even as he acknowledged the city’s spiraling crime problem. “D.C.’s local government has been an abject failure in keeping citizens safe,” Swart said, “but there’s also a real danger in putting too much power in federal hands. That balance of power matters.”
Swart also pulled back the curtain on the capital’s protest culture: “Most people don’t know this, but many protesters are literally on the payroll—Capitol Hill staffers from both parties are often expected to show up at rallies and protests on their own time. That doesn’t mean they don’t support the cause, but these crowds aren’t as ‘organic’ as they appear on TV.”
“Whether your organization is lobbying to move forward a healthcare, financial, energy or other social initiative,” writes Swart’s website, “we can organize rallies and get media attention for your causes and candidates. We also assist individuals, companies and political organizations with protests and picketing campaigns. We’ve protested governments, corporations and everything in between.”
Progressive groups have mobilized swiftly to pick up the tab, according to The New York Post. Americans for Public Trust says organizations funded by billionaire George Soros and other left-leaning donors have poured more than $20 million into efforts opposing Trump’s crackdown. Free DC—a project of Community Change and Community Change Action—staged a rally near the White House on August 11 with about 150 participants, urging nightly demonstrations involving tactics like banging pots and pans. The group has also scheduled a “Cop Watch Training” to prepare for continued protests.
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, accused the organizers of hypocrisy: “It is ironic that a protest to ostensibly ‘Free DC’ was hosted by Community Change, a group funded by massive amounts of outside dark money to push a pro-crime agenda.” Records show that in 2023 alone, Community Change and its advocacy arm received $4 million from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, $680,000 from the Arabella Advisors network, and $145,000 from the Tides Foundation. Between 2020 and 2023, these groups collected $12.6 million from Open Society, $5.6 million from Arabella, and $1.9 million from Tides.
The same groups have been working with Stacey Abrams to help ban gas stoves.
Libs in DC are singing in protest because Donald Trump is trying to make the city safer.
You can’t make this stuff up.
— Gizmo Memes (@Gizmo_Memes) August 11, 2025
Trump’s order came after an August 3 attempted carjacking left Edward Coristine, a former staffer at the Department of Government Efficiency, badly injured. “The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, blaming lax enforcement for letting criminals “face little consequence.” In the same post, he warned that if the situation persisted, “I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
As troops and federal officers fan out across the capital, the standoff has become more than a fight over crime—it’s a contest over who governs Washington, D.C., and whose hands the levers of public safety should rest in. Protests are expected to intensify in the days ahead, fueled by money, manpower, and an ideological clash over the limits of federal power.
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