Crime in the nation’s capital is entirely out of control. Washington, D.C., the city housing America’s government that should serve as a model for safety and order, is now instead a warning sign for what happens when progressive Democrats abandon common sense in favor of ideological fantasy.
Those days are over.
Once again, President Donald Trump did what needed to be done — something his predecessors were too timid to do. This week, President Trump announced he is liberating Washington, D.C., from the crime-riddled madness plaguing it, fake crime statistics peddled by Democrats notwithstanding.
“LIBERATION DAY IN D.C.,” Trump posted on Truth Social today. “WE ARE TAKING OUR CAPITAL BACK!!!”
“Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.
This is welcome news from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
For too long, liberal local elected officials in D.C. have clung to the naïve belief that “harsh punishment” of criminals is itself the problem, refusing to acknowledge that real deterrence comes from enforcing the law swiftly and decisively — as Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) famously wrote, we need to “send in the troops.”
Working hand in hand with activist groups, D.C. Democrats have vilified the police, gutted their morale, and sent the unmistakable message to criminals that law enforcement is the enemy, not their reckoning. With Trump, however, a new sheriff is in town.
The results are impossible to ignore. Armed robberies targeting Canada Goose jackets and other luxury items have become routine — broad daylight stickups now part of the city’s daily rhythm for its residents and for its tourists.
Retailers, large and small, are shuttering their doors after enduring relentless mass burglaries, confident that the perpetrators will never face meaningful consequences.
Lyft drivers who survived foreign warzones are killed by teenagers in the streets of D.C. — and those kids will barely see the inside of a jail cell. Washington’s once-vibrant commercial corridors are hollowed out, victims of official, Democratic Party-sanctioned negligence.
Even the city’s most high-profile neighborhoods have not been spared. The Navy Yard, home to members of Congress, their staff, and countless law-abiding residents, has descended into anarchy. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D., Texas) was carjacked just blocks from his office.
The Bullpen, a venue once meant to be a festive gathering spot, now regularly devolves into an open-air drug market where parties spill into the streets, often ending in violence and disorder. Mobs of young people swarm through local businesses, destroying property and terrorizing bystanders in acts of casual brutality.
The lawlessness is now directly impacting the highest levels of government. A White House staffer was recently brutally attacked. A sitting member of Congress was targeted and assaulted. Numerous congressional staffers have been beaten or held up at gunpoint, often within sight of the Capitol dome itself. An intern for Rep. Ron Estes (R., Kansas) was just murdered.
These are not isolated incidents: they are part of a larger pattern that underscores just how far the city’s security has collapsed.
The chaos doesn’t stop at street level. Thanks to D.C.’s so-called “inclusionary housing” laws, taxpayer-subsidized tenants are placed in some of the city’s most expensive buildings, many with no regard for rules, security, or community standards. These high-end residences, once hallmarks of stability, now mirror the disorder outside their front doors as the same lawlessness migrates indoors. The taxpayer is funding a program that erodes the very communities it was meant to diversify.
Enough is enough. The situation has deteriorated past the point of polite debate and incremental reform. It is time for decisive, overwhelming legal force to restore order in the capital.
President Donald J. Trump should use every legal tool at his disposal to halt the spiral immediately. Criminals must be made examples of, with sentences that send an unmistakable signal: D.C. will no longer tolerate the Democrats’ lawlessness. The message should be unmistakable: break the law in Washington, and you will pay the price.
The Washington Reporter applauds President Trump’s attention to this growing crisis. For too long, the city’s leadership has looked the other way while its streets, businesses, and neighborhoods descended into madness.
We welcome the prospect of a federal course correction that restores order, protects the innocent, and reestablishes Washington, D.C., as a capital worthy of the nation it represents.
The time for platitudes and excuses has passed. The time for action is now.