Charles Wilson of Washington, DC, shows where a running gun battle took place before President Donald Trump's August 2025 takeover of policing in the city. Wilson said he's seen zero extra police or federal agents in his Anacostia neighborhood since Trump's vow to stop violent crime in the nation's capital.
Shopping on May 9, 2025, in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Progressives have been consistently wrong about the consequences of President Donald Trump's actions. Their overreaction to Trump's decision to establish law and order in Washington, DC, is the most recent example.

On Aug. 11, Trump described our nation's capital as full of "bloodshed, bedlam and squalor." He then deployed National Guard troops and vowed to take over the Metropolitan Police Department to “help reestablish law, order and public safety” in the city.

I lived in the DMV area − DC, Maryland, Virginia − for about a decade. Many of us have our own anecdotes, supported by data, about the decline of our nation's capital.

Trump's order prompted a wave of fact-checking in mainstream media. The New York Times, for example, wrote about fact-checking Trump's "false and misleading claims" about crime. Progressive leaders insisted that the president was not only wrong but also acting like a bully.

Did Trump exaggerate about the level of crime in Washington? Perhaps. But the reality is that the crime rate in the capital city is far above an acceptable level. See for yourself:

  • In 2024, the DC homicide rate was 27.3 per 100,000 residents, the fourth highest rate in the country. The homicide rate did drop more than 30% from the previous year, as Trump's critics keep shouting, but fourth worst in the nation isn't something anyone should defend.
  • The Metropolitan Police Department’s data shows that the average number of carjackings has declined since a huge spike in 2023, but remains above 2019 and 2018 levels. More than 70% of carjackings in the city involve the use of guns to terrorize the victims.
  • The juvenile arrest rate in DC from was almost double the national average from 2016 to 2022.

Maybe people don't read those statistics and think Washington is filled with mayhem and squalor, but the city isn't just about midnight strolls beside the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, either.

The president's order raises important questions: Just how much violence should we accept in our cities? Is there really no viable way to help more Americans feel safer in their homes and neighborhoods?

Trump is challenging an unacceptable status quo, which is what good leaders should do.

Progressives' meltdown over Trump sending 800 National Guard troops to assist in making Washington streets safe is another example of how wrong they've been about the consequences of the president's actions.

Liberals were wrong about Trump's tariffs

For months, liberals screamed that Trump was destroying the U.S. economy with his tariffs. Inflation would spike. Unemployment would skyrocket. The public would revolt because of the financial pain he was so ruthlessly inflicting on them.

None of it has happened.

According to the latest consumer price index data released Aug. 12, prices rose 0.2% in July, with the annual inflation rate at 2.7%. This spring, grocery prices fell at the fastest rate in five years. Gas prices were down nearly 10% in July from a year ago.

The stock markets also have shaken off their fear of tariffs. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have set multiple record highs in recent weeks, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged almost 2% in the five-day period ending Aug. 13. That's fantastic news for the tens of millions of Americans who have retirement and other investment accounts.

The doomsday predictions about tariffs from only four months ago turned out to be drastically overblown. But I have yet to hear any progressives publicly admit they were wrong.

Trump's wins expose the left's disturbing pattern

This pattern has happened on other issues, like border security.

Under President Joe Biden, migrants crossed the border illegally in record numbers. Trump, after returning to the White House in January, quickly regained control. In fact, Customs and Border Protection reported that the agency released zero illegal immigrants into the United States in May. That was an incredible feat. Yet, it was hardly recognized in the news media.

The left has developed a pattern in overreacting to Trump that will ensure the Democratic Party's continued decline. It goes like this: Trump proposes a policy change or issues an executive order. Democrats and their allies in the media predict imminent doom. Trump's policy decisions turn out to be correct. Then progressives ignore the results and simply move on to shouting about something else.

Progressives are so anti-Trump that they're now anti-common sense too. Democrats will pay a heavy price for traveling down such a self-destructive path.

In 2028, voters will have to choose between a conservative candidate who stands for less crime, border security and balanced trade policies that promote prosperity and a Democratic candidate who rejects commonsense solutions for ideological reasons.

I know who I'll choose.

Nicole Russell is a columnist at USA TODAY and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at nrussell@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, The Right Track, here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From crime to tariffs, Trump challenges the unacceptable. It's what good leaders do. | Opinion

Reporting by Nicole Russell, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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