Trump sends National Guard to Washington to tackle imaginary crime wave
Donald Trump will deploy the National Guard to tackle the “rampant crime” in Washington DC – but his plan is built on one big lie. What’s his scheme in faking the state of America’s city streets?
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In brief:
- Trump plans to deploy National Guard troops to control Washington DC's police, claiming the city has "rampant crime" - but DC crime data shows violent crime is actually at a 30-year low, down 26% from last year.
- The News Agents describe the move as political theatre targeting Democrat-run cities, with Trump potentially expanding similar federal interventions to Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Oakland.
- They add that the tactic of exaggerating urban crime problems for political gain is being replicated in UK politics, where London is similarly portrayed as a "crime-addled wasteland" despite residents' actual experiences.
What’s the story?
Donald Trump has revealed plans to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to take control of Washington DC’s police department, tackling “rampant crime” which has swept the US capital.
He describes the city as awash with "crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor."
The only problem with his “Liberation Day” plan? The crime wave doesn’t exist.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser disputes Trump’s claims, saying the city is at a "30-year violent crime low”.
Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police (MPDC) data supports this claim, showing violent crime peaking in 2023, but dropping to its lowest level in three decades in 2024.
Violent crime is down 26% compared to the same period last year, and while this differs to FBI data, which shows a 9% drop, both conclude that crime has declined.
Trump’s claim that Washington murder rates were at the “highest rate, probably ever" are also incorrect.
Trump also suggested this federal intervention could expand to other cities, specifically mentioning Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Oakland as potential targets for similar action.
Jon Sopel’s not buying any of it, having lived in Washington for many years while working as the BBC’s North America editor.
To him, Trump’s depiction of the city he spent many years of his life in, “does not equate”.
“It is a city that has its problems – there are homeless people, there are people with serious mental illness who are living on the streets.
“But you are going to encounter these things in any city anywhere in the world.”
Trump and the National Guard
Lewis Goodall describes the move as both “chilling” and “useless”, with echoes of Trump previously interfering in Los Angeles policing with the National Guard during summer riots over the actions of ICE agents.
“We've been down this road before,” he says, adding there’s even less reason to deploy armed troops to Washington than there was in LA.
“As LA Governor Gavin Newsom has said, when Trump sends the National Guard in, they don't have anything to do, they're basically just doing paperwork and bureaucracy and pen pushing.
“It is pure politics, pure theatre, but with a deeply sinister bent to it.”
Is the same thing already happening in the UK?
Most people who live in London will tell you the same thing: it’s a nice place to live, but the tube is a bit much sometimes.
But listen to right-wing journalists, activists and social media trolls and they’ll tell you it’s a crime-addled wasteland where migrants will wrestle the phone from your hand the moment you step into the city.
Lewis says having the right wing paint major cities as “infernos of chaos, destruction and drugs and crime and race tension” is not a new tactic.
He says even if there is sometimes a grain of truth to this narrative, it has become “grossly exaggerated” by people looking to exploit that narrative for their own political ends.
This type of American politics, Lewis adds, is one he Trump has “intensified and augmented”, and is being replicated in British politics today.
“London is increasingly being set up as this hell hole, this dystopian nightmare where crime is completely out of control,” he says.
“You can barely walk out of your house without getting beaten up, or your possession stolen from you, where fare-evasion is completely rampant on the tube.”
What’s The News Agents’ take?
The two cities Trump has marched the National Guard into, Washington and LA, have one thing in common. Both are Democrat controlled.
“There's no coincidence there,” says Jon, adding that he has also suggested taking over policing in Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh, LA, San Francisco as well.
But, he adds, there could be a flaw in his plan.
“If you don't suddenly see a massive reduction in violent crime and a massive reduction in drug offenses and a massive reduction in homelessness and homicides - it becomes his problem”
Or, Jon suggests; “he'll sack whoever's in charge of the statistics.”