President Trump said Thursday he would stand side-by-side with D.C. police and National Guard troops during a nighttime patrol as part of his mission to lower crime in the District.
Mr. Trump told radio host Todd Starnes that he would join Metropolitan Police officers and a group of Guard troops in what is now the 10th day since he declared a crime emergency and federalized the District’s police force.
“I’m going to be going out tonight, I think with the police and with the military of course,” the president said.
Mr. Trump did not discuss when or where the patrol would occur or how long he would be out with the officers and troops.
The White House confirmed that the president will be out Thursday with police and the National Guard but didn’t share specifics about where he would be walking the beat.
A day earlier, Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth handed out burgers to troops inside Union Station. The visit was met with noisy protests in the station’s concourse, as well as questions from reporters about why guardsmen were concentrated at such a tourist-heavy location with little crime.
“If you’ve ever been to Union Station in the last few years with your family, you know the crime is actually extremely high right here,” Mr. Vance shot back. “You have vagrants, you have drug addicts, you have the chronically homeless, you have the mentally ill who harass, who threaten violence, who attack families, and they’ve done it for far too long.”
The vice president added that the historic building should be a “monument to American greatness,” and not a den of lawlessness because “we’ve empowered criminals over the people who actually need public safety in the city.”
Mr. Vance did say the president would try and extend the 30-day emergency if that’s what Mr. Trump thought was best.
Republicans in Congress have proposed giving the president the ability to lengthen the emergency period, but its chances of passing are low since it would need Democratic support.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that the federal surge has netted 630 arrests and seized 86 illegal guns since it began in earnest
She said 53 arrests were made Wednesday along with 24 immigration-related arrests and 10 gun confiscations.
“Our incredible US Marshals even helped recover a missing child,” Ms. Bondi posted on X. “Our mission to make DC safe again isn’t slowing down.”
D.C. city leaders have argued the federal intervention is unnecessary, given that violent crime is at a 30-year low in the District.
But Mr. Trump disputes the accuracy of Metropolitan Police statistics, and said the nation’s capital has some of the highest murder and car theft rates in the country.
Just two years ago, the city endured its worst crime wave of the century when it saw 274 killings in one year.
