Featured Image Credit: Dominik Bindl/Getty Images/Sky News
Topics: Donald Trump, Crime, Politics, US News, Police, Washington
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Donald Trump, Crime, Politics, US News, Police, Washington
Hillary Clinton has reacted to Donald Trump's recent announcement about issuing a militant-style crackdown in Washington, D.C.
President Trump said on Monday (August 11) that he is placing the US capital's police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to make the nation’s capital safer.
Trump has promised new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington, D.C, prompting the city’s mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets.
Ahead of a news conference, Trump said on social media that the nation’s capital would be 'Liberated today!'
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He insisted he would end the 'days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people'.
Trump also compared crime in the city with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others.
But the president's decision has raised some questions, as Washington's crime rate is actually at an all-time low.
In January 2025, the United States Attorney's Office reported that 'total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35 percent from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years' per data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Further breaking down the figures, data showed that homicides were down 32 percent, robberies were down 39 percent, and armed carjackings are down 53 percent.
Addressing this at the time, former United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves said in a statement: "The strategy this Office began to employ shortly after I came into this role has been to work with our law enforcement partners to focus on the drivers of violence - those gangs or crews of people who are dealing drugs, protecting turf, committing carjackings and other robberies, all while armed.
"It takes time to develop these investigations and prosecutions, but this is the fruit of that labor - a reduction in the violent crime - that D.C. is now seeing."
Graves has since been replaced by Jeanine Pirro.
Pointing out the data from January, Hillary Clinton has now branded Trump's newly-announced plans as 'unhinged'.
She penned on Twitter shortly after the president's August 11 news conference: "As you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the National Guard in DC, here's reality: Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low."
The city's mayor, Muriel Bowser, has also criticized the Trump administration's plans.
"It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023," Bowser said on MSNBC’s The Weekend. "We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low."
What do you think about Trump's plans?