If the president’s recent escalation was an attempt to goad Democrats into declaring that crime isn’t a problem, they did not disappoint him.
To many Washington insiders, President Trump’s early August Beltway crime crackdown seemed like an opportunistic and hamhanded pivot after getting walloped for weeks over the Jeffrey Epstein affair.
But if it wasn’t clear then, it is now: The White House’s public safety play is a deliberate ploy to refocus the narrative on an issue that favors Republicans ahead of the midterms — one that’s already backing Democrats into a corner.
The president in recent days is leaning even further into using the National Guard as a glorified police force, visiting the troops and allowing them to be armed. He’s suggested he’s eyeing Chicago and New York next for their next deployment. On Sunday, he needled Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for Baltimore’s notorious crime statistics, hinting he could send troops there as well.
It’s a sign that despite polling showing how unpopular Trump’s moves are in Washington, the president is playing to a national audience — and betting this is a battle he and the GOP can win. If his recent escalation was an attempt to goad Democrats into declaring that crime isn’t a problem, repelling swing voters in the process, top Democrats did not disappoint him.
Over the weekend, Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York released statements arguing that crime in their cities was down or that there’s no “emergency” requiring the National Guard. Other Democrats have glossed over voters’ concerns about public safety, deriding Trump as an “authoritarian.”