America
Trump Tames Crime in Blue Cities
His crackdown puts people ahead of politics, ending woke policies and making neighborhoods safer.
I
BY JOHN R. LOTT JR. AND RICHARD PORTER
n 2024, among our nation’s 25 most-populous cities, Washing- ton, D.C., had the worst murder rate — 28% higher than second-
place Indianapolis and 198% higher than the group’s average. But after President Donald Trump intervened in August this year, for 13 days there were no murders in D.C. compared to 2024, when the district recorded 187 homicides. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced
that in the first 20 days after Trump’s takeover from Aug. 7-26, violent crime plummeted 45%, carjackings were down 87%, robbery down 62%, and sexual abuse down 44%. D.C.’s residents suddenly felt much
safer. This isn’t rocket science. The research is clear: Crime goes down as the risk of arrest, conviction, and pun- ishment goes up. As of December, the D.C. police department had 1,340 patrol officers and over 3,400 officers total, but only about a third of them are available on any given shift to serve a city of 720,000. Trump added over 500 federal law enforcement officers and about 800 National Guard troops, effectively doubling the number of patrol officers,
calming the mayhem dramatically. In response to the president’s plan
to deploy the National Guard and fed- eral forces to other cities like Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson of the Windy City argued that jailing offenders is “racist, immoral, and unholy” and does not curb violent crime. “We’ve tried that; it doesn’t work.” Johnson isn’t the only Democrat
who believes that arresting criminals is racist, but as a poll by M3 Strategies shows, Blacks and Hispanics are more supportive of law enforcement than whites — no doubt because the burden of crime falls heaviest on Black and Hispanic communities. A National Institute for Criminal
Justice Reform analysis of D.C. homi- cides between 2019 and 2021 found that about 96% of victims were Black. The same is true, though to a lesser
extent, in Chicago. So far this year, 80% of the murder victims were Black. With 573 murders last year, that amounts to about 450 Black people murdered. Black residents suffer dispropor-
tionately in other crime categories as well, and they’re hurt by the corollary effects of high crime as businesses shut down, jobs disappear, stores close their doors, and property values take a hit. So, it should not be surprising that Chicago’s Black and Hispanic com- munities support federal help to fight crime.
Black residents, by a 48%-44% mar-
gin, thought it was a good idea. Hispan- ics showed even stronger support by a 55%-38% margin. The experience in Washing-
SAFETY In August President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard in D.C. to provide a visible presence in public areas to deter crime.
12 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2025
ton, D.C., showed that a significant and visible increase in law enforce- ment saves lives and reduces violent crime. — Real Clear Politics
MOST DANGEROUS CITIES IN AMERICA: ALL BUT ONE RUN BY DEMOCRATS
2024 City
Birmingham, Ala. St. Louis, Mo.
Memphis, Tenn. Baltimore, Md. New Orleans, La. Detroit, Mich. Cleveland, Ohio Dayton, Ohio
Kansas City, Mo. Shreveport, La. Washington, D.C. Atlanta, Ga.
Milwaukee, Wis. Indianapolis, Ind. Richmond, Va. Cincinnati, Ohio Louisville, Ky. Chicago, Ill.
Compton, Calif. Oakland, Calif. Hartford, Conn.
Albuquerque, N.M. Montgomery, Ala. Rochester, N.Y.
Homicide Rate
58.8 54.4 40.6 34.8 34.7 32.1
30.5 29.7 27.6 26.8 27.3 24.7 23.9 23.8 23
21.8 21.7 21.7 20.1 18.6 18.4 18.4 18.1 18.1
Years Since a
Republican Was Mayor
50 76 63 63
153 63 36 24 34 0
64
146 117 9
35 53 56 94 62 48 54 8 6
52
Homicides per 100,000 residents. Of the 20 cities with the highest homicide rates in the country, 12 are located in red states. Only one, Shreveport, Louisiana, currently has a Republican mayor. A Republican has run the city only 11 of the past 152 years.
It’s been 50 years since Birmingham, Alabama, last had a Republican mayor.
The last time there was a Republican
mayor in St. Louis was 1949. Atlanta hasn’t had a Republican
mayor since 1879; New Orleans hasn’t seen one since 1872.
In Indianapolis, the homicide rate has been elevated ever since Democrats gained control of the mayorship in 2017. From 2010 through 2016, the annual number of homicides in the city averaged around 120. Since then, it’s averaged 201.
The Republican mayor of Dallas, Eric Johnson, ran twice as a Democrat and switched to the GOP less than two years ago.
SOURCES: Rochester Institute of Technology, Issues and Insights Research
TOM WILLIAMS/GETTY IMAGES
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