President Donald Trump on Monday announced he would take temporary control of D.C.’s police force and deploy National Guard troops, citing the need to address what he described as “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs of wild youth.” The announcement marked a sharp escalation in Trump’s efforts to exert federal authority over the nation’s capital. The president cast Washington as a city in crisis, warning of imminent danger to residents and visitors alike.

“This is about law and order, pure and simple,” Trump said. “We will not allow our capital to be overrun.” But the grim portrait he painted stands in stark contrast to crime statistics from the Metropolitan Police Department, which show violent crime in Washington at its lowest level in three decades:

By the Numbers: D.C. 2023 to 2

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