New evidence undercuts Trump’s claims about crime, National Guard deployments in D.C.

At an Oval Office event on Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump took some time to claim that restaurants in Washington are “reopening” thanks to his role in creating a “vibrant” capital. The president made similar claims at a White House Cabinet meeting last week, patting himself on the back, insisting that “everyone’s going out to dinner,” in large part because he positioned National Guard troops to keep local residents safe.

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The rhetoric was part of a pattern that began last summer when the Republican deployed the guard to Washington streets, followed immediately by claims of extraordinary success.

“I’ve made Washington, D.C., just an incredible place in literally four days,” he boasted during a Fox News appearance in August. The comments came the day after the president wrote on his social media platform, “People are flocking to D.C. again,” pointing to a trend he apparently made up.

In the weeks and months that followed, polls showed broad public skepticism about the guard patrolling civilian streets, but Trump nevertheless repeatedly boasted that, thanks to his guard deployments, lawbreaking was a thing of the past in the nation’s capital. Even during his State of the Union address, delivered in February, the president assured the public that “we have almost no crime anymore” in Washington.

Though I wish that were true, there’s evidence to the contrary. NPR reported:

President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. has reduced petty property crimes, but has had little to no effect on violent crime, despite the high cost to taxpayers, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan think tank Niskanen Center.

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The study’s findings were published just weeks after federal officials announced that the number of troops in D.C. is set to double this summer to 5,000 as part of a “summer surge” of law enforcement ahead of events planned for America’s 250th birthday celebration.

According to the data, there was a 24% drop in “opportunistic” crimes, such as property crimes and vehicle break-ins, but the presence of the guard had no meaningful effect on violent crimes.