from the just-following-orders dept
Even though Trump says it’s about the crime rates, it’s not actually about the crime rates.
Just like he used the hallucination that the entirety of Los Angeles was under siege by “violent” protesters to justify sending in the troops, the reality was that any violence was contained to a few small blocks in the city. Furthermore, most of the violence was being committed by law enforcement officers. Finally, even local law enforcement officials saw no need to add National Guard troops and Marines to the mix because they already had everything under control.
The same game plan has gone into effect in Washington D.C. After some punk kid hired by Musk’s DOGE squad got rumbled by a couple of teens, Trump declared the city lawless and took direct control of policing the District of Columbia with a hodgepodge mix of whatever federal law enforcement officers hadn’t already been deputized by ICE to detain ice cream vendors, meatpackers, and day laborers. Added to that unheady brew of g-men? 800 National Guard troops.
Because the people who love Trump suck as much as Trump does, politicians are aiding and abetting martial law implementation simply because the Big Man asked.
Three Republican-led states, responding to a Trump administration request, said Saturday they will send up to 750 National Guard troops to join 800 already mobilized in D.C.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he would deploy 200 troops “to stand with President Trump as he works to restore law and order to our nation’s capital.” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he was sending 150 military police from the state’s National Guard. The Ohio Guard members are expected to arrive to D.C. in the coming days, DeWine said in a statement.
They followed West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who said 300 to 400 National Guard troops would be called up.
Well, I guess do whatever you think might earn you Trump’s endorsement/derision over the remainder of your career. It’s not like Trump hasn’t turned on his most vehement supporters for the pettiest of reasons in the past. And, by all means, ignore the crime happening in your own jurisdiction.
Phil Bump — who has previously angered ICE enough to get acting head Todd Lyons to write an op-ed in response — points out the facts no one involved in this latest bit of shitheeling has the courage to respond to on the record.
This isn’t because there’s no crime in D.C. to combat (of course there is, as the right-wing media insists one acknowledge) but because the mission as established by President Trump isn’t really about that. Crime is simply the pretext Trump is using to put into effect his long-standing desire to deploy troops on the streets of D.C. Maybe it’s a lingering frustration from what happened in 2020; maybe it’s about pressing his thumb down on a city that voted heavily against him. Either way, it is not centrally about crime.
Because Trump is championing this deployment, his supporters are treating it as necessary and brilliant. And that, in turn, is triggering GOP politicians to start another scramble onto another bandwagon. Hence the deployments from Republican governors in Republican states: They get to say that they helped Trump do the thing that Trump told his base needed to be done. And here we are.
As the FBI’s own crime data points out, Washington D.C.’s crime rates have returned to historic lows, following an uptick in 2020 (when Trump was still president!) amid large-scale disruption created by a worldwide pandemic.
None of this matters to Trump. And none of this matters to the first Republican governors willing to send their own off to Washington D.C. to stand around looking useless while crime continues to remain at historic lows.
Meanwhile, on the home front, there’s plenty of actual crime that’s essentially being ignored by these performative losers. As Bump’s infographics — taken directly from FBI crime rate data — show, these governors might have been better off sending the National Guard into some of their own cities. More than a few have violent crime rates close to, or surpassing, the crime rate in D.C. that has Trump all hot and bothered.
Anything in pink is a city that has a higher violent crime rate per capita than Washington D.C. And the maps Bump has included in his post are interactive, so you can fact-check them yourself, should you feel compelled to do so. Certainly, no one in the White House is concerned with actual facts. This is all a performance.
And it’s a performance Trump wants to extend past Los Angeles and Washington D.C. He has made vague statements about sending the military into any city or state he doesn’t feel is run by loyalists. Of course, he claims it’s all about crime, but the facts aren’t going to simply vanish just because Trump (and his acolytes)[and his MAGA fans] refuses to acknowledge them.
Following his military incursion into the D.C. area, Trump threatened similar things may be happening soon in Los Angeles (where it already has happened), Baltimore, Oakland, New York, and Chicago. According to this oratorical genius, all of these cities are “bad, very bad.”
The facts say otherwise. (I mean… I guess? How do you directly contradict “bad, very bad?”)
In Oakland, all violent crime has dropped 19% since last year. Homicides are down 32% and robberies decreased 24%. In Chicago, crime rates have fallen 15% since 2023, with murder being down 37%.
Baltimore’s violent crime rate has decreased 17% since last year, and even more since 2020, despite the implementation of “liberal” policies the Trump administration continues to claim (without any facts in evidence) have turned Baltimore into an unlivable nightmare of constant criminal violence.
The same goes for New York City, which has seen a crime rate decrease as well, despite being hampered by a mayor who thinks it’s time to go back to “broken windows” policing, which will apparently be overseen by any number of city and law enforcement officials who were investigated for corruption. (And that includes the mayor.)
None of this is about crime. It’s just another show of force from a megalomaniac who loves cheap, meaningless “wins” and being catered to by an entire cadre of cabinet members and advisors who couldn’t find a spine if you trapped them in an ossuary. (Which is something we, the people, should definitely consider doing.)
It’s a stunt presidency that’s doing actual lasting damage to this nation, democracy, and everything a lot of people claimed they stood for before they started voting for Trump. There’s a nation to be had here, but we should be the ones taking it, rather than sitting by while it’s taken from us. Every fact matters, even if this administration refuses to engage with them. Journalists like Bump are doing what needs to be done. While everyone understands this “bad, very bad” shit is performative, it takes a concentrated effort to ensure it never becomes uncontested.
Filed Under: crime rates, henry mcmaster, martial law, mike dewine, national guard, ohio, patrick morrisey, south carolina, trump administration, washington dc, west virginia
