President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and other members of the cabinet went out to eat Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the extreme drop in crime since the National Guard was deployed in the city.
“Over the last 20 years, it was very unsafe and now, it’s got virtually no crime,” Trump told reporters outside of Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab Restaurant in Washington, D.C.
“I am standing out in the middle of the street,” he added. “I wouldn’t have done this three months ago, four months ago, I certainly wouldn’t have done it a year ago. This was one of the most unsafe cities in the country. Now, it’s as safe as there is in the country.”
On Aug. 11, Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital and deployed the National Guard, federalizing local law enforcement in an effort to crack down on crime. Just before he went out to dinner, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that federal law enforcement and the Washington Metropolitan Police had arrested 2,177 individuals since that federal intervention began.
Leavitt said that number included 57 arrests on Sept. 8, 14 of which were illegal immigrants. One suspect already had an outstanding warrant for assault with intent to kill, another was arrested on a warrant for armed carjacking, and another was suspected of homicide and carjacking.
Many of the more than 2,000 arrested already had criminal records.
“These are career criminals,” Leavitt said. “These are the bad guys that we are picking up in Washington, D.C., every day.”
Trump encouraged everybody to go out, thanked the National Guard, and said he loved working with the D.C. mayor and the police chief to make the city as safe as possible.
He announced that he had dinner plans in the city during a press conference in the Oval Office on Sept. 5 but did not disclose details.
“I wouldn’t have done that, to be honest,” he told reporters. ”I would have had an obligation not to do it before I came into office, or even at the very beginning, when things were so corrupt and so dangerous out on the streets.”
After initially rejecting what she called a federal “intrusion” into the city, on Sept. 3, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an order formally extending cooperation between federal law enforcement and local police. Without this, Congressional action would have been needed to extend the arrangement beyond Trump’s initial 30-day emergency order.
Trump plans to keep the National Guard in the nation’s capital for the time being and looks to use D.C. as a model for cracking down on other cities across the country. Outside the restaurant, he confirmed that the next city was chosen and could be announced as soon as Sept. 10.
“We’re going to be announcing another city that we’re going to very shortly,” he said. “We’re working it out with the governor of a certain state who would love us to be there, and the mayor of a certain city in the same state who would love us to be there.”
Cheers could be heard before Trump made his remarks. But not everyone was happy. As members of an activist group called CodePink got to the president’s table before him chanting among other things, “Free D.C.! Free Palestine!”
The president turned to the protesters, smiled, then had them removed.
Andrew Moran and Travis Gillmore contributed to this report.
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