By Harold Pease, Ph. D.
The first week in August President Trump was making the case for excessive violence in the District of Columbia, that it was out of control and would necessitate the use of the National Guard to bring it back in line as a safe city from which the federal government could govern and foreign visitors could feel safe to visit (FULL: Trump deploys National Guard to DC in bid to fight crime, DC police under federal control, ABC-7 News, YouTube). Like a choir the Deep State presses came out in unison that, in fact, crime was down and the city was already safe.
As with all issues on line using Google, one must go through several pages of published articles before finding one giving the other side of any argument. I experience this every week. What the Deep State wants known, or believed, they list first. The following was the typical response. “There is an unmistakable and large drop in reported violence in the District since the summer of 2023, when there were peaks in homicide, gun assaults, robbery, and carjacking. That downward trend is consistent with what’s being reported in other large cities across the country, (“Crime in Washington, DC: What You Need to Know,” Aug. 11, 2025, CCJ —Council on Criminal Justice.) None argued that Washington DC is one of the safest cities in the world, that there weren’t these horrible crimes taking place at unacceptable numbers—only that crime was going down rather than up. All to curb Trump’s using the National Guard so that criminality COULD reduce.
But the White House doubled down with detail. “In 2024, Washington, D.C. saw a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 residents.” Up from “just 13.9 per 100,000 residents in 2012” and this was “nearly six times higher than New York City.” And, “If Washington, D.C. was a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the nation.” And, “there were 29,348 crimes reported in Washington, D.C. last year, including 3,469 violent offenses, 1,026 assaults with a dangerous weapon, 2,113 robberies, and 5,139 motor vehicle thefts.” And, “Vehicle theft in Washington, D.C. is more than three times the national average — ranking it among the most dangerous cities in the world.” And finally, “carjackings increased 547% between 2018 and 2023. In 2024, there were triple the number of carjackings compared to 2018” (FACT: Yes, D.C. Crime Is Out of Control, The White House, August 11, 2025).
Although it is obvious one side is lying, it is also obvious that the Deep State does not want the National Guard replacing their corrupt police department in DC, or their extreme leftist judicial system in the city, or their long physical control of the capitol of the “free world.” The White House August 11, memo to the American people opened with something we should all agree on. “Washington, D.C. should be a symbol of pride and patriotism for the American people—and a safe location for tourists, residents, and public servants. Unfortunately, while Fake News journalists and politicians go out of their way to claim otherwise, the reality is that our nation’s capital is anything but safe.
We notice since deployment of the National Guard under U.S. Code: Title 32 —To assist Federal and Washington D. C. law enforcement within the National Capitol —early use of the code demonstrated a drastic decrease in crime. Kash Patel Director of the FBI reported, “Overnight in DC. the FBI and our partners made 45 arrest — 29 immigration — related, 16 tied to the violent crime surge, and three firearm seizures.” (X22 Report, not cited hereafter, Ep. 3709b, Aug. 14, 2025, 50:04). Three days later he reported, “We’re now over 120 arrests since President Trump’s initiative began. ‘We are getting the job done.’” (Ep. 3710b, Aug. 17, 2025, 47:50).
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who is the person responsible for prosecuting most criminal cases in the District, shared, “This past weekend alone, officials made 137 arrest and took 21 illegal guns off the street…over 400 criminals have already been arrested” (Ep. 3712b, Aug. 19, 2025, 43:36). Crime plummeted. Since Trump brought in the National Guard, the people there see everything as much safer. Paul D Thacker, of the DC Police Union, reported, “In seven days the crime rate in DC is down: robbery 46%, ADW down 6%, car jacking down 83%, car theft down 21%, violent crime down 22%, property crime down 6%, all crimes down 8%. (Ibid, 42:42). As President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement surge in D.C. continued, more than 1,000 arrests have been made in the first two weeks (“Arrests surpass 1,000 in DC federal law enforcement surge,” by Michael Miller, Washington DC News).
Part of the bid to get our capitol back is to also get our history back and the Smithsonian Institute, located within the District of Columbia, is in the cross hairs of the war between traditionalist history (who base the past upon the documents of that day and time tested scholarship) and revisionist or woke history—those who largely wish to destroy our past, our Constitution, statues, and heroes (primary based upon today’s sense of social justice). Trump aligns with traditional history and wants to preserve in our history “American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.” This is what should be preserved in our tax payer funded museums.
Trump said, “The Museums throughout Washington, but [also] all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’ The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” he wrote on Truth Social. Trump continued, “We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,” referring to his administration’s not forcing the tax-paper to fund politicized, even fake, history.
The museums will be required to return to time tested scholarship as the foundation of truth in “tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals,” as it has been for hundreds of years. Tax payer funded institutions must show significant progress toward this standard.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution and a syndicated columnist. Read more of his weekly columns at www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column # 835
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