President Trump on Thursday spoke to a large crowd of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in Southeast before his nighttime patrol with guard members and D.C. police as part of his mission to lower crime in the District.
Mr. Trump delivered a campaign-style speech at the U.S. Park Police headquarters in Anacostia and handed out slices of pizza and burgers to the federal police and servicemen in attendance.
“We had a country that was laughed at a year ago,” the president said. “They couldn’t understand what was happening. And it’s about leadership. But we had a country that was a dead country in many ways.”
Mr. Trump returned to the White House around 6 p.m. It remains unclear when and where he will be going on patrol with Metropolitan Police officers and a group of Guard troops.
Mr. Trump told radio host Todd Starnes earlier Thursday that he would walk the beat with authorities on what is now the 10th day since he declared a crime emergency and federalized the District’s police force.
“I’m going to be going out tonight, I think with the police and with the military of course,” the president said.
The White House confirmed that the president will be out Thursday with police and the National Guard but didn’t share specifics about where he would be either.
A day earlier, Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth handed out burgers to troops inside Union Station. The visit was met with noisy protests in the station’s concourse, as well as questions from reporters about why guard members were concentrated at such a tourist-heavy location with little crime.
“If you’ve ever been to Union Station in the last few years with your family, you know the crime is actually extremely high right here,” Mr. Vance shot back. “You have vagrants, you have drug addicts, you have the chronically homeless, you have the mentally ill who harass, who threaten violence, who attack families, and they’ve done it for far too long.”
The vice president added that the historic building should be a “monument to American greatness,” and not a den of lawlessness because “we’ve empowered criminals over the people who actually need public safety in the city.”
Mr. Vance did say the president would try and extend the 30-day emergency if that’s what Mr. Trump thought was best.
Congressional Republicans have proposed giving the president the ability to lengthen the emergency period, but its chances of passing are low because it would need Democratic support.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that the federal surge has netted 630 arrests and seized 86 illegal guns since it began in earnest
She said 53 arrests were made Wednesday along with 24 immigration-related arrests and 10 gun confiscations.
“Our incredible US Marshals even helped recover a missing child,” Ms. Bondi posted on X. “Our mission to make DC safe again isn’t slowing down.”
D.C. city leaders have argued the federal intervention is unnecessary, given that violent crime is at a 30-year low in the District.
But Mr. Trump disputes the accuracy of Metropolitan Police statistics, and said the nation’s capital has some of the highest murder and car theft rates in the country.
Just two years ago, the city endured its worst crime wave of the century when it saw 274 killings in one year.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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