(TNND) — Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Stephen Miller spoke to the National Guard stationed at Union Station on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. amid the Trump administration’s crime crackdown in the city.
The visit comes just nine days after the Trump administration enforced a federal intervention to address crime in the nation’s capital.
During their remarks, protests over the federal takeover of the city as well as the Israel-Hamas war erupted in the background.
Vance stated that the visit, which took place inside the station’s Shake Shack restaurant, was intended to thank the National Guard and police for “actually keeping this place safe.”
The Vice President claimed that since the start of the federal takeover, Washington D.C. has seen a 35% reduction in violent crime and an over 50% reduction in robberies, attributing this statistic to the “substantial efforts” of the newly deployed forces around the city.
“You can actually bring law and order to communities,” Vance said, “you’ve just got to have the political willpower to do it.”
Vance also shared his own experience at Union Station a couple years prior, where he said he and his family were “screamed at by violent vagrants,” contrasting it with the administration’s current approach to make it a place “where people can walk around safely.”
“I know that we’ve traded now some violent crazy people who are screaming at kids, with a few crazy liberals who are screaming at the Vice President,” Vance said referring to the protesters that could be heard in the background.
Vance also claimed that D.C. has a higher crime rate than Trinidad and Tobago, which the State Department issued a level 3 travel advisory for during May of this year due to “serious risks from crime” and “heightened risks of terrorism and kidnapping.”
Hegseth joined Vance in making remarks, referring to the troops as “Patriots” who are “proud to be a part of making sure law and order is established in the Capital.”
Miller took a stern approach in his remarks, condemning the city’s crime issues as well as the protesters outside the event.
“There are residents who lived in Washington, D.C. their entire lives… in intolerable conditions of crime and decay,” he said.
The voices that you hear out there,” Miller said referring to the protesters as “crazy communists… (who) have no roots, no connection to the city… but they’re the ones who have been advocating for the 1%… the criminals, the killers, the rapists the drug dealers.
In response to the protesters, Miller vowed that the administration would add “thousands more resources” to the city, continuing their efforts to “get the criminals and gang members out.”
Miller also pointed out that majority of D.C. residents are Black, saying that Trump is “the one who is fixing” the lack of safety for them.
“All these demonstrators… all of these elderly White hippies, they’re not part of this city and never have been,” Miller said.
“We’re going to ignore all these stupid White hippies that 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 of Washington D.C.,” Miller said concluding his remarks.
As Vance, Hegseth and Miller departed from Union Station, protesters chanted “Free D.C.” at the group.