As I've said several times in the past couple weeks, the Democratic objections to Trump's takeover of the DC police is not about preserving democracy or home rule. Their real concern is that his plan will work. And yesterday, the Mayor of DC came out and told the nation that it is working. Crime in DC is down sharply in the past two weeks.
DC Mayor Bowser Praises Trump's Federal Surge For Reducing Crime Rate
— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) August 27, 2025
"We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city."
Mayor Muriel Bowser says crime rates have decreased significantly since @POTUS' recent deployment of the… pic.twitter.com/e8aWVlpa9Z
Mayor Bowser was immediately criticized by local Democrats who said no one should be praising Trump's takeover. He should only be criticized, regardless of what the crime stats show.
Those responses are the kind of dumb resistance politics that usually result in Democrats being on the wrong side of 80-20 issues. We've seen this over and over from border control to trans kids in women's sports and now with local crime. Trump promised to bring down crime in DC and he has, significantly. Instead of playing it smart as Mayor Bowser herself is doing, many Democrats just want to lash out.
Enter Gavin Newsom who is officially the governor of California but who seems to spend most of his time now campaigning for the 2028 Democratic nomination. Today, he held a press conference where he announced his own plan to deal with crime in California cities.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced the deployment of a new California Highway Patrol suppression team that will work with local law enforcement throughout the state in efforts to fight crime.
“When the state and local communities work together strategically, public safety improves. While the Trump Administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them — and delivering real results,” Gov. Newsom said. “With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down.”
The newly developed enforcements will be established in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area regions.
Newsom is slick but he's not dumb. He's aware that, as I said above, the worst case for Democrats is that Trump's crime push works. So the fact that it is working, and working quickly, is potentially bad news for Dems. Newsom is taking a if you can't beat them, join them strategy. He's not going to let Trump run away with the crime issue. He's announcing his own crack down while simultaneously claiming his announcement had nothing to do with Trump.
Newsom insisted he was “not reacting and responding to anything” relating to Trump and emphasized the state’s deployment, unlike the president’s, was not being done over the objections of local governments.
“As it relates to the president in particular, he’s doing things to people, not with people, and it’s a point of profound, consequential contrast. He’s de facto militarizing American cities,” Newsom told reporters.
The announcement is Newsom’s latest attempt to take the lead in offering a competing Democratic vision of governance to Republican Washington ahead of a likely 2028 presidential run.
Newsom is, of course, lying through his teeth. Everything about this is about responding to Trump. If Trump gets results cutting crime, Newsom wants to be able to make the same claim. At the same time, he's also lying about the nature of the crime problem.
BREAKING: Gavin Newsom just destroyed the Republican myth on crime. The highest, most densest crime ridden areas are Republican led. This is how you win back the narrative. pic.twitter.com/C5cmzyfJ0Y
— Democratic Wins Media (@DemocraticWins) August 28, 2025
This is a trick Democrats have been using for a while now. It's indeed true that if you look at murder rates by state, you find the top five (based on 2022 data) are Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, New Mexico and Missouri. With the exception of New Mexico, all of those states are red states with Republican governors.
So does this prove that the crime problem is a Republican problem? Not exactly. Because much of the crime in every state is happening in the cities and in most cases those cities are run by Democrats. That's true even in red states.
So if, instead of breaking crime down by state you break it down by city, you get this list of cities with the highest murder rates: Memphis, St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Birmingham. And guess what, the mayor of every one of those cities is a Democrat.
Of course you can look not just at murder but at violent crime or non-violent crime or all crime. Depending how you look, you'll get a slightly different list. For instance:
Cities with highest violent crime rates:
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 23, 2025
1. Memphis, TN
2. Detroit, MI
3. Baltimore, MD
4. Houston, TX
5. Nashville, TN
6. Denver, CO
7. Washington, DC
8. Philadelphia, PA
9. Indianapolis, IN
10. Phoenix, AZhttps://t.co/gRx2KQX6Q0
The point is, many of the top cities for crime are run by Democrats. And in most cases there hasn't been a Republican in control of anything in the city for decades. This is a point President Trump himself has made just this week when asked if he would send National Guard troops into red states.
REPORTER: Would you consider sending the National Guard into 'red' cities that are also seeing high crime?@POTUS: "Sure — but that aren't that many of them. If you look at the top 25 cities for crime, just about every one of those cities is run by Democrats." pic.twitter.com/fn2rdEuRDc
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 25, 2025
So this is the argument that keeps going back and forth over violence in states:
According to federal data, 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of those cities are Chicago.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) August 28, 2025
8 of the top 10 states in homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states are Illinois.
And yet Trump is sending troops here. pic.twitter.com/g75fR5aItA
And violence in cities.
Let me help you out Governor.
— Will Cain (@willcain) August 28, 2025
Cities, Mayors, Democrats…Crime. https://t.co/rrbNP04MZ7 pic.twitter.com/EYPvMXKl5U
Having watched the whole defund the police debacle up close a few years ago and the disaster that followed, it's pretty clear to me that decisions made by Mayors and City Councils are the ones having the most impact on crime.
Gavin Newsom knows all of this. He's just hoping that the people listening to him don't.
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