By Lauren Burke
Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller visited Washington, DC’s Union Station on August 20. They spoke with members of the National Guard during their visit. On August 11, President Trump ordered that the National Guard be deployed in Washington, DC under an emergency authority order to deal with crime. Washington, DC, has the lowest violent crime rate in 30 years, according to ongoing data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). During their visit to Union Station, there were many onlookers who were not happy with a visit from Trump Administration officials.
“We’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies who all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old, and we’re going to get back to the business of protecting the American people and the citizens,” Miller said, apparently referring to the negative jeers heard in the background. Miller, Hegseth, and Vance stood in Union Station’s Shake Shack, where members of the guard had gathered. Miller, who is reportedly the lead architect in Trump’s White House of many of the policies being implemented related to diversity, mass deportation, and additional police-state related actions, and the Vice President were met with jeers and boos from onlookers, some of whom chanted “free DC” during their visit.
Both Vance and Miller greeted members of the guard and made brief remarks. As their strategy has been in the past, they referred to Washington, DC, as crime-ridden even though crime stats show a drop in violent crime. “If you look at what has happened in Washington, DC, in just nine days, you’ve seen a 35% reduction in violent crime, we’ve seen a fifty percent reduction in robberies because these guys are here busting their ass,” Vance told reporters as he stood around a group of National Guard members. He did not refer to where his data came from. “We do not have to allow our cities to be taken over by violence and disorder and chaos,” Vance added.
Vance’s remarks were similar to what President Trump stated on August 11 as he announced an unprecedented federal government takeover of Washington, DC. Trump mentioned six cities with Black Mayors during his remarks at the White House. They were: Oakland, Washington, DC, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. “So many Americans live in cities. They occupy these spaces. They know how unsafe they are, and they would love to be able to just live their life in places like Union Station without violent criminals making it impossible,” Vance also said.
What the Trump Administration continues to focus on is allocating billions into law enforcement-related parts of the government. Videos of what appear to be members of law enforcement and others, some of whom are masked and will not identify their agency or name, have been widely seen on social media. Several states with Republican Governors are sending their National Guard units to Washington, DC, including Ohio and West Virginia.
