Former President Donald Trump has initiated a crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C., which his team says has been successful enough to consider expanding the effort to other U.S. cities.
However, the move has drawn criticism from Democrats, who argue that Trump is selectively targeting Democrat-led areas in predominantly blue states. Critics point out that states like Louisiana — a red state — also face high crime rates.
While this is true, Trump supporters argue that the most crime-ridden areas in these red states are often large cities governed by Democratic administrations, sometimes for decades. This, they say, makes the distinction less about the state’s political leaning and more about who governs the urban centers where crime is most concentrated.
Conservative publication Issues & Insights recently examined the issue, highlighting how few of the country’s most violent cities are led by Republicans. Their analysis poses the question: How many of the deadliest cities in America have Republican mayors? The answer, according to their research, is very few.
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently challenged Trump’s crime-fighting claims, suggesting that if he were truly serious about addressing crime, he’d send the National Guard into red states like Louisiana — which has a higher murder rate than California.
But on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem responded directly to that suggestion, stating on Face the Nation that the administration is open to deploying the National Guard wherever it’s needed, regardless of political control.
“Absolutely,” she said when asked if Republican-led areas could be included. “Every single city is evaluated for what we need to do there to make it safer.”
Still, even if the Trump administration were to act on this across the board, much of the deployment would likely focus on Democratic-run cities — not out of partisanship, but because these cities statistically face the highest levels of violent crime.
According to Issues & Insights:
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Of the 20 U.S. cities with the highest homicide rates, 12 are located in red states, but only one currently has a Republican mayor.
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Shreveport, Louisiana, for example, has a Republican mayor today, but Republicans have only controlled the city for 11 of the last 152 years.
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Birmingham, Alabama, hasn’t elected a Republican mayor in over 50 years.
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St. Louis last had a Republican mayor in 1949.
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Atlanta has been run by Democrats since 1879, and New Orleans since 1872.
Critics of Democratic leadership argue that these long-standing political monopolies have failed to address deep-rooted issues related to crime, poverty, and infrastructure in many U.S. cities.
Supporters of Trump’s approach contend that the data speaks for itself: the cities facing the worst crime are often those that have been under Democratic control for generations.