Trump visits federal law enforcement officers in DC; does not do patrols as expected
Trump does not do patrols with federal law enforcement as expected
President Donald Trump on Thursday met with federal law enforcement officers in D.C., thanking them for their work and claiming that D.C. is now safer than ever before. For much of the day there was talk that the president would be patrolling the streets of D.C. but that wasn?t quite the case.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Thursday met with federal law enforcement officers in D.C., thanking them for their work and claiming that D.C. is now safer than ever before.
This comes about one week after the White House launched its crackdown on crime in the District.
"Everybody's safe now. Everybody feels safe," Trump said. "It's our capital and I guess it used to be many years ago, say, but it's certainly not had a very good run. And you've got to be strong. You've got to be tough. You've got to do your job. Whatever it takes to do your job, you’ve got to do your job. but the crime numbers are way down."
Change of plans:
For much of the day there was talk that the president would be patrolling the streets of D.C. but that wasn’t quite the case.
Trump spoke to about 300 men and women from agencies including the DEA, ATF, and National Guard—all currently patrolling the streets of D.C.
"I’ve never received so many phone calls thanking me for what we’ve done in Washington, D.C., from people who haven’t gone to a restaurant in literally four years," Trump said.
LIVE BLOG: Trump visits federal law enforcement officers in DC
There was the speech, some pizza and burgers and then the president headed back to the White House.
It happened at the U.S. Park Police Anacostia operations facility in Southeast with a Humvee stationed at this entrance at times, a drone flying overhead and a horde of media hoping to catch a glimpse.
As the president riffed on topics ranging from the new White House ballroom to AI to grass in area parks and what he says has been a drop in District crime.
"They’re numbers that we haven’t seen here, ever," Trump said.
Big picture view:
Earlier this week, the D.C. Police Union backed that up with a post on X, saying that "While federal assistance gives us a boost, we must repeal the misguided Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act in order to make these changes permanent."
Although, before the surge of federal law enforcement, numbers from the D.C. Police Department claimed that there had already been a 26 percent year-over-year drop in violent crime.
Still, the president praised the efforts of law enforcement and said there’s much more here—and elsewhere—to come.
"There's no games, right? We're not playing games. We're going to make it safe and we're going to then go on to other places but we’re going to stay here for a while. We want to make this absolutely perfect," Trump said.
As for the food, officials really did serve hamburgers from the White House and pizza from Wise Guys.