Hillary Clinton has responded to Donald Trump’s latest declaration about initiating a strict crackdown in Washington, D.C.
On Monday (August 11), President Trump announced his decision to place the US capital’s police department under federal authority and deploy the National Guard to enhance safety in the nation’s capital.
The announcement came alongside Trump’s promise for new measures to address homelessness and crime in Washington, D.C., which has led the city’s mayor to express concerns over the potential involvement of the National Guard in street patrols.
Prior to a scheduled news conference, Trump took to social media, declaring that the nation’s capital would be ‘Liberated today!’
He asserted that he would put an end to the ‘days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people’.
Trump further drew comparisons between crime in Washington and other major cities, suggesting that Washington ranks poorly in safety compared to capitals such as those in Iraq, Brazil, and Colombia.
This decision by the president has sparked debate, as Washington’s crime rate is actually experiencing a significant decline.
As of January 2025, the United States Attorney’s Office reported that ‘total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35 percent from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years’ based on data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Delving into the statistics, the data revealed that homicides decreased by 32 percent, robberies were reduced by 39 percent, and armed carjackings declined by 53 percent.
Addressing these figures, former United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves stated: “The strategy this Office began to employ shortly after I came into this role has been to work with our law enforcement partners to focus on the drivers of violence – those gangs or crews of people who are dealing drugs, protecting turf, committing carjackings and other robberies, all while armed.
“It takes time to develop these investigations and prosecutions, but this is the fruit of that labor – a reduction in the violent crime – that D.C. is now seeing.”
Since then, Jeanine Pirro has taken over Graves’ position.
Highlighting the January data, Hillary Clinton has criticized Trump’s newly-announced plans, labeling them as ‘unhinged’.
Shortly after the president’s August 11 news conference, she tweeted: “As you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the National Guard in DC, here’s reality: Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low.”
Muriel Bowser, the city’s mayor, has also voiced her disapproval of the Trump administration’s proposals.
“It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023,” Bowser remarked on MSNBC’s The Weekend. “We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.”
What are your thoughts on Trump’s plans?