Tamara Keith:
There have been some very high-profile instances of crime in D.C. that have come close to the Trump administration and have gotten on the president’s radar.
But, to be clear, he has been talking about wanting to take over Democratic-run cities since he ran for president the first time in 2016. This is not a new theme for him in any way. This is certainly an escalation. And D.C. is the one city, it’s the one place where he actually has the power to do this. Obviously, he has to declare an emergency.
And there are questions about how much of an emergency this moment is right now, given the decline in crime. But there are a large number of murders that do take place in Washington, D.C. Relatively, other cities are higher, but it’s still a high number or a high share, a high crime rate. It is the lowest it’s been in 30 years, but it’s still high.
So he is going after this, and he’s also trying to send a signal to other cities. You saw what happened in Los Angeles with calling in the National Guard there. This is something he wants to do. And he’s trying to send a signal to cities like Chicago, one of the cities he called out, also Baltimore, and wants them to be afraid, I think.
