WASHINGTON - Top Trump administration officials on Aug 20 thanked troops deployed in the nations capital and blasted demonstrators opposed to the aggressive anti-crime efforts as stupid white hippies.
At Union Station, Washingtons central train hub, US Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, accompanied by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, shook hands with National Guard soldiers at a Shake Shack restaurant.
Youre doing a hell of a job, Mr Vance said, as demonstrators drowned him out with jeers and shouts of Free DC!
He urged troops to ignore the bunch of crazy protesters, while Mr Miller dismissed them as stupid white hippies.
The unfamiliar scene the countrys Vice-President and top defence official visiting troops deployed not to a war zone but to an American citys tourist-filled transit hub underscored the extraordinary nature of the Trump administrations crackdown in the Democratic-led District of Columbia.
Thousands of Guard soldiers and federal agents have been deployed to the city over the objections of its elected leaders to combat what Mr Trump says is a violent crime wave.
City officials have rejected that assertion, pointing to federal and city statistics that show violent crime has declined significantly since a spike in 2023.
The President has said, without providing evidence, that the crime data is fraudulent.
The US Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the numbers were manipulated, the Washington Post reported on Aug 19, citing unnamed sources.
Amid the crackdown, federal prosecutors in the District have been told to stop seeking felony charges against people who violate a local law prohibiting individuals from carrying rifles or shotguns in the nations capital.
The decision by District of Columbia US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, which was first reported by the Washington Post, represents a break from the offices prior policy.
In a statement, Ms Pirro said prosecutors will still be able to charge people with other illegal firearms crimes, such as a convicted felon found in possession of a gun.
We will continue to seize all illegal and unlicensed firearms, she said.
The White House has touted the number of firearms seized by law enforcement since Mr Trump began surging federal agents and troops into the city.
In a social media post on Aug 20, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the operation had taken 76 illegal guns off the streets and resulted in more than 550 arrests, an average of 42 per day.
The citys Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrested an average of 61 adults and juveniles per day in 2024, according to city statistics.
The Trump administration has not specified whether the arrest totals it has cited include those made by MPD officers or consist only of those made by federal agents.
A District of Columbia code bars anyone from carrying a rifle or shotgun, with narrow exceptions.
In her statement, Ms Pirro, a close Trump ally, argued that the law violates two US Supreme Court decisions expanding gun rights.
In 2008, the court struck down a separate District of Columbia law banning handguns and ruled that individuals have the right to keep firearms in their homes for self-defence.
In 2022, the court ruled that any gun control law must be rooted in the countrys historical traditions to be valid.
Unlike US attorneys in all 50 states, who prosecute only federal offences, the US attorney in Washington prosecutes local crimes as well.
District of Columbia crime rates have stayed mostly the same as they were a year ago, according to the police departments weekly statistics.
As at Aug 19, the citys overall crime rate is down 7 per cent year over year, the same percentage as before the crackdown.
The District of Columbia has also experienced the same declines in violent crime and property crime as it did beforehand, according to the data. REUTERS
