Last week, Donald Trump identified his next target for his crackdown on crime.
So far, he has had positive results in DC, especially when it comes to carjackings, which have declined by more than 80% since the federalization of the city.
Now, Trump has announced a new target, and while Chicago is still on his radar, Trump chose New Orleans, a city in a state run by a Republican governor, and one with one of the most violent crime problems in the country.
DC Mayor Bowser has taken her shots at Trump during the federalization, but she has also been very receptive to the help.
For instance, she recently stated, "We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city.”
She continued, "We know that when carjackings go down, when use of guns goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer, so this surge has been important to us.”
The latest stats showed an 87% drop in carjackings, yet there are still media outlets saying that Trump’s takeover has only produced a “moderate” decrease in crime.
One of the criticisms of Trump regarding the takeover is that he is “picking on” Democrat governors and mayors, as six of the 10 most violent cities in this country are run by Republicans.
What they missed, however, is that those cities are run by Democrats. That being said, I had even noted that Trump should pick a city in a red state, preferably one with a Republican mayor.
Instead, Trump picked New Orleans, and this is a very reasonable pick, as we noted above, because the city is not only one of the most violent in this country, but also one of the most violent in the world in terms of murders.
Trump stated, “We’re going to come into New Orleans, and we’re going to make that place so safe. It’s got a little problem right now, a couple of headaches, like murders, a lot of little murders going on, and we’re not going to stand for it. And we’re going to come in, we’re going to clean it up.”
Donald Trump managed to get everyone stirred up this weekend after posting a meme touting a crackdown in Chicago.
In the meme, Trump was depicted as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore from the 1979 Vietnam War film “Apocalypse Now. The words “Chipocalypse Now” were in the meme, and Trump captioned it, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.”
Once again, a self-inflicted wound, as you don’t want to portray yourself as going to war with a city in your country, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker jumped all over it, responding, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal.” He added, “Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
I want to be clear in that I support these crime crackdowns, but the optics of how Trump is doing this are very questionable. Trump continues to play to his base, but in the process, he is alienating other voters and giving Democrats ammunition to use against the GOP in the upcoming election cycle. He really needs to start thinking big picture rather than entertainment.
