I know the 4D Chess concept is somewhat of a Trump meme, but there are moments when I wonder if the man isn't some sort of PR genius, and this D.C. crime clean-up is one of those times.
To catch you up, Trump seized control of D.C. as the city was drowning in crime and murder, using Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which gives the Trump administration direct control of D.C.'s law enforcement. Democrats and the media tried to argue that crime was already falling in D.C., and Trump was just acting as a dictator would, but as it was soon reported, the books were being cooked by MPD supervisors to make it appear violent crime had fallen by reclassifying them as lesser crimes.
Sure enough, crime is down sharply, and D.C. had its first zero-homicide week in years.
🚨 JUST IN: Washington DC has now gone a stunning 8 consecutive days without a homicide.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 22, 2025
Here's the homicide heatmap. Zero.
President Trump is doing it. Wow 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/vMlnXxa6yx
Of course, none of this makes Democrats look remotely good. They've been in charge in D.C. for an inordinate amount of time, and the crime it was infested by is a direct result of their incompetence and soft-on-crime stances.
I'm not sure there's any way the Democrats can save face on this one, and from where I'm sitting, they have three options, none of which are ideal.
The first is that they can continue doing what they're doing, and continue trying to downplay Trump's efforts to clean up crime around D.C. by making it seem like he's just taking credit for Democrats' work. This is the most likely path they'll take, but it's the least advisable one. Not only is the evidence that books were cooked to hide Democrat incompetence too strong to ignore, but what you can't fake is the zero homicide week. You can't exactly ignore a dead body.
Taking this route makes Democrats look like a party that is actually defending crime just to save face, and while hardliners will clap like seals and nod in unison, it's going to leave a bad taste in the mouths of everyone else.
The second is staying silent, which I think is the least likely. Trump would still get his W, but at least in this scenario, the Democrats don't continue to effectively promote crime to spite Trump. They still look bad, but at least they don't widen their own wound and bleed out more. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Then there's the third scenario: take partial credit.
This wouldn't be too hard to do, given the fact that the left is still in control of most of the major platforms. They can spike the football as well, and pretend that they set the stage for this drop in crime to happen. They can continue to reinforce the idea that crime was already falling, and while not everyone is going to believe that, it'll at least muddy up the narrative enough to have enough people buying it to save a little face. It also stops them from effectively defending crime, which is the crux of the Democrats' problem.
Regardless, it still gives Trump his win, and this is where I have to wonder if Trump's narrative genius isn't hype. He's in an all-win situation, and the Democrats are left with damage mitigation. No matter what they do, they're walking out of this with an injury.
And that's the least the Democrat Party deserves. The amount of crime they've allowed in major cities has cost innumerable lives, trauma of all kinds, including sexual assault, and the entire time, they've shrugged it off or pointed the finger somewhere else. As Trump pointed out, he's cleaned up one of the most crime-ridden cities in a matter of days with proper and forceful policing, leaving Democrats with few excuses for their failure to keep the American people safe.
Trump is really putting the pressure on blue city leaders with this accomplishment, as he should. Americans shouldn't have to live in fear because Democrats put their ideology before people.
