Trump said the police and troops are doing a ‘fantastic job’ more than a week after he federalized control of the city’s police department.
President Donald Trump met with law enforcement and the National Guard in the nation’s capital on Aug. 21, more than a week after his federal takeover of Washington’s law enforcement.
Assembling in front of the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility just after 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, the president brought hamburgers and pizza for roughly 300 officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Marshals Service, National Guard, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police.
“You do the job on safety, and I’ll get this place fixed up physically, and we’re going to be so proud of it at the end of six months,” Trump told the crowd.
Trump said that by the end of the year, Washington would be “maxed out in terms of beauty.”
“You‘ll have all new surfaces. You’ll have all new medians. Everything’s going to look beautiful. A lot of your signs are going to be taken down. They’ve been up for 40 years,” he said. “They look like they’re barely standing up.”
Trump was accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, among other administration officials. The president said the burgers, which he brought for the law enforcement gathered around the facility, were cooked in the White House, and the pizzas were ordered from a local restaurant.
“You have always, in turn, your entire life, supported law enforcement, and that makes a difference,” Burgum said. “If we’re the greatest country in the world, you shouldn’t be afraid to be able to go out for dinner.”
Burgum said Trump’s federal takeover of Washington sends a “message to every city in the country … that America, greatest country in the world, is going to have the most beautiful capital and the safest capital.”
Bondi said the various law enforcement agencies are “working hand in hand to make DC safe.”
“They’re out here working midnights every night because they love our country. They love our city, and they love you,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Trump appeared on the Todd Sternes radio show to announce his meeting with law enforcement Thursday night.
The president told Sternes that the military stationed in Washington is doing a “fantastic job” at law enforcement in the nation’s capital.
Trump federalized control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department on Aug. 11, ordering about 800 National Guard troops to assist with law enforcement.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,“ Trump said at a White House press briefing at the time.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”
Starnes responded to Trump’s news of his plans to go on patrol, pondering whether the president would be given a uniform.
Attorney General Brian Schwalb stated in an Aug. 11 X post that “the Administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.”
“There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia,” he said. “Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year.”
Ten days after the federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement, Bondi offered an update in an Aug. 21 X post: “We’ve now made a total of 630 arrests and seized 86 illegal guns in DC.”
She went on to say that 53 arrests were made on Aug. 20, in addition to 24 arrests by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and 10 guns seized. The U.S. Marshals also helped recover a missing child, Bondi said.
Trump received support from several Republican governors who promised to send troops to assist with the effort to clean up the streets.
Governors from Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio all promised to send hundreds of National Guard troops.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in an Aug. 18 statement posted on X, announcing the deployment of around 200 National Guard soldiers, “Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it.
“Americans deserve a safe capital city that we can all be proud of. I know the brave men and women of our National Guard will do an excellent job enhancing public safety and supporting law enforcement.”
The state National Guard units will assist D.C. police and the 500 federal agents assigned to the city.
As the attorney general works to address the crime, members of the administration have highlighted recent examples of the crime problem.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted the story of Iris Tao, a White House reporter from The Epoch Times sister publication, NTD News, who was robbed at gunpoint.
Tao wrote about the experience in an op-ed on “the human cost behind the [crime] stats.”
Leavitt said when sharing the post, “Every White House reporter knows Washington, DC has a serious crime problem, but few will admit it. Thank you @IrisTaoTV for sharing your harrowing experience as a victim of crime.”
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