The White House touted the success of President Donald Trump's decision earlier this month to order National Guard troops to Washington, D.C, to help crack down on crime in the nation's capital, a move which was quickly seized by Democrats as being ineffective and outright authoritarian.
According to their post, the White House said there have been 1369 arrests and 140 guns seized in D.C. since the president's decision to clean up on crime.
"Carjacking in D.C. is down 87%. All other categories of crime are likewise down massively since I got involved," Trump said in response. "DC will soon be a CRIME FREE ZONE, in only 14 days, far faster than scheduled. Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Just last week, Republican Govs. Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia sent their own National Guard troops to help Trump deal with the problem.
Florida gubernatorial hopeful David Jolly, a Republican-turned-Democrat, essentially criticized his potential delegation in a response to Trump's order on Wednesday.
"No Governor should deploy their state's National Guard to support Trump's armed patrols of American cities," Jolly said. "Instead, let's attack crime by demanding the GOP Congress restore Trump's funding cuts for law enforcement. Time to fight crime, not communities."
According to a study by the Rochester Institute of Technology, D.C. had a crime rate of 27.3 per 100,000 people in 2024. While high compared to other U.S. cities over the same period, the district's rate was down 30% year over year.
Trump has also floated the idea of deploying National Guard troops in other cities, including Chicago. The potential move has been rebuked by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who essentially told the president not to show up.
"Do not come, Donald Trump," Prtizer said on X. "You are neither wanted nor needed here in Illinois.
