GOP senator points to 'red state with a crime problem' while calling Trump's bluff on DC

Sen. Thom Tillis

In public rebuke of President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on crime, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) voiced concern over GOP efforts to override Washington, D.C.’s local governance, questioning the consistency and motives behind federal intervention.

“D.C. has a crime problem,” Tillis acknowledged during The Takeout podcast Thursday.

“But where do we stop? Do we honestly think that D.C. has the worst problem in the U.S.?... Do we go to Gary, Indiana? Detroit? Memphis, a red state that’s got a crime problem?”

Tillis’s comments come amid growing criticism of Trump’s takeover of the nation’s capital.

His effort followed a broader conservative narrative painting D.C. as a symbol of Democratic mismanagement and urban decline, a narrative Trump has leaned on heavily in social media posts ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Last year, Congress overrode a D.C. Council crime bill that would have reduced penalties for certain offenses. Former President Joe Biden signed the override into law, breaking with most Democrats and drawing backlash from progressives and local leaders who decried the move as an attack on home rule.

In his Thursday interview, the North Carolina senator questioned why the GOP is singling out the District while ignoring similarly high crime rates in Republican-led cities.

His comments echo concerns from D.C. officials and home rule advocates, who argue that local residents — many of whom are Black and historically disenfranchised — deserve the same democratic autonomy as those in the states.

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