Crime has nothing to do with it

Because crime has long been a subject where Republicans have dealt with pure vibes, it makes sense for governors in states with higher murder rates to send auxiliary goons into Washington D.C.:

Governors of three states — Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia — are sending members of their state National Guards to D.C. to … well, theoretically to combat crime but, if the past week is any indicator, mostly to stand near tourist sites and wear uniforms.

This isn’t because there’s no crime in D.C. to combat (of course there is, as the right-wing media insists one acknowledge) but because the mission as established by President Trump isn’t really about that. Crime is simply the pretext Trump is using to put into effect his long-standing desire to deploy troops on the streets of D.C. Maybe it’s a lingering frustration from what happened in 2020; maybe it’s about pressing his thumb down on a city that voted heavily against him. Either way, it is not centrally about crime.

Because Trump is championing this deployment, his supporters are treating it as necessary and brilliant. And that, in turn, is triggering GOP politicians to start another scramble onto another bandwagon. Hence the deployments from Republican governors in Republican states: They get to say that they helped Trump do the thing that Trump told his base needed to be done. And here we are.

But now the pretext wavers. If there really is an emergency in D.C. that necessitates the use of the National Guard and other federal agencies, that would suggest that crime in D.C. is exceptional. (It would also suggest that crime is rising, which it isn’t; quite the opposite. But if you note that it’s falling, then you find yourself under attack for downplaying the existing crime, even when you aren’t. These are the traps that the pro-Trump bubble uses to keep reality at bay.) Data released by the FBI earlier this month, though, shows that a lot of other places — including places in those three states — had higher rates of violent crime and homicide than did D.C.

The invasion is, however, achieving its core purpose of damaging a city Republicans hate for demographic reasons:

100% intended, they want DC to suffer, they want it to feel hostile to everyone who lives there or goes there. The Republican ideal is for cities to be places where everyone is afraid of getting kidnapped or shot by roving gangs of masked bandits working in cahoots with the police.

[image or embed]— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) Aug 17, 2025 at 12:56 PM

Mission accomplished!

…in closely related news:

The @washingtonpost tracked where Trump's forces are patrolling in Washington. Spoiler alert: They're not where the crime is.

[image or embed]— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt.bsky.social) Aug 17, 2025 at 1:07 PM