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Armed National Guard troops patrol Union Station on Aug. 25, 2025, near the U.S. Capitol as part of President Donald Trump\u2019s deployment in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump has not floated the possibility of sending troops into Arizona. But the violent crime rate in Phoenix is higher than the rate in Chicago, the next city on the president\u2019s list. <\/p>\n
The rate of violent crime per capita in Phoenix is high enough to rank 51st among cities of 100,000 or more. Chicago ranks 108th. Washington, D.C., is 34th.<\/p>\n
Since Aug. 11, Trump has deployed about 2,200 National Guard troops to patrol in the nation\u2019s capital. Chicago is next.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going in,\u201d he said Tuesday in the Oval Office. \u201cChicago is a hellhole right now. Baltimore is a hellhole right now. \u2026 I have an obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baltimore ranks fourth among midsize and large U.S. cities, with 1,600 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, though the number of such crimes dropped 5% last year. <\/p>\n
But Democrats opposed to Trump\u2019s deployment of troops and federal agents say fighting crime doesn\u2019t seem to be his main priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has used D.C. residents as props in a political play to showcase his own power,\u201d said D.C.\u2019s non-voting delegate in the U.S. House, Eleanor Holmes Norton.<\/p>\n
At a news conference Wednesday at the Capitol, she and fellow Democrats from Illinois, Maryland, New York and Washington state accused Trump of using non-existent lawlessness as a pretext.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need Trump\u2019s troops on our streets. What we need and what our constituents continue to say is that we need an investment in our neighborhoods,\u201d said Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of violating laws against military involvement in domestic policing.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also asserts that Trump\u2019s moves have harmed the city\u2019s economy by scaring away visitors and notes that by law, only Congress \u2013 not the president \u2013 has authority over the federal district.<\/p>\n
The deployment includes 800 troops from the D.C. National Guard and others from six states with Republican governors. <\/p>\n
Those militias have not been federalized, and the local government hasn\u2019t requested their presence. D.C. argues that means it\u2019s unlawful for them to operate outside their own states.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration should talk to mayors and ask them, \u2018How can we best support you?\u2019 if you really want to be helpful to cities across America,\u201d said Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, a former mayor of Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Trump floated an intervention in New Orleans on Wednesday, which Louisiana\u2019s Republican governor says he would welcome. He mentioned Oakland, Calif., as another possibility three weeks ago. California\u2019s Democratic governor said he\u2019s opposed.<\/p>\n
If violent crime is the only criterion \u2013 murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault \u2013 Phoenix might well catch Trump\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n
Violent crime per capita in Phoenix rose 2% in 2024, according to an analysis of FBI data by Cronkite News. <\/p>\n
FBI figures show an 11% drop in Chicago\u2019s rate from 2023 to 2024. <\/p>\n
In D.C., violent crime was down nearly 9% in that period.<\/p>\n
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat, declined to comment on whether she would welcome a surge of troops and federal law enforcement. <\/p>\n
Most of the nation\u2019s Democratic governors have criticized Trump\u2019s actions, issuing a joint statement last week that called the deployments \u201can alarming abuse of power\u201d as well as unnecessary and illegal.<\/p>\n
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs was one of four Democratic governors who did not sign on. Her office said she would not comment on a \u201chypothetical\u201d possibility of federal intervention. An aide noted that Hobbs expressed disapproval when Trump sent troops into Los Angeles in June.<\/p>\n
Rep. Andy Biggs of Gilbert, who is running for governor in next year\u2019s GOP primary, has introduced two bills to support Trump\u2019s moves in Washington. <\/p>\n
The Make D.C. Safe Again Act would allow presidential control over the city\u2019s Metropolitan Police Department during emergencies for up to 180 days, up from the current 30-day limit.<\/p>\n
Another proposal from Biggs would eliminate the option of cashless bail in D.C., tracking a Trump priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen our nation\u2019s capital faces lawlessness, violent crime, and breakdowns in public order, the federal government has a responsibility and a constitutional duty to act decisively,\u201d Biggs said last week in a statement announcing the proposals. <\/p>\n
Other Arizona Republicans in Congress, including Reps. Eli Crane of Oro Valley and Abe Hamadeh of Scottsdale, have also expressed support for Trump\u2019s use of the National Guard in Washington.<\/p>\n
Trump says the federal intervention has eliminated crime in D.C. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now a safe zone,\u201d he told reporters earlier this week. \u201cWe have no crime. It\u2019s in such great shape.\u201d <\/p>\n
Washington is unique in that Congress has ultimate say over its local governance, but its 700,000 residents lack voting representation at the federal level. <\/p>\n
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has credited Trump\u2019s efforts with reducing crime. Other city officials have denounced her for failing to push back against the president.<\/p>\n
In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, strongly objected to any federal intervention. The White House has not said when troops would be sent. <\/p>\n
On Saturday, Johnson signed an executive order prohibiting Chicago police from cooperating with military personnel or federal law enforcement on \u201cany unlawful or unconstitutional actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, the president sent 700 Marines and 4,000 California National Guard members to Los Angeles in response to protests over his immigration crackdown, over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a federal district court judge ruled that move violated the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the military from performing civilian policing functions.<\/p>\n
The administration filed an appeal, and Trump called the judge \u201cradical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The D.C. attorney general\u2019s lawsuit also cites Posse Comitatus. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe danger that such an operation poses to individual liberty and democratic rule is self-evident,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armed National Guard troops patrol Union Station on Aug. 25, 2025, near the U.S. Capitol as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":200923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,18570,960,69,111171,111172,46805,56925,7090,1589,111173,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,19289,2058],"class_list":{"0":"post-200922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-baltimore","12":"tag-chicago","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-fbi-uniform-crime-reporting","15":"tag-kate-gallego","16":"tag-katie-hobbs","17":"tag-muriel-bowser","18":"tag-national-guard","19":"tag-phoenix","20":"tag-posse-comitatus","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-violent-crime","28":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115148882346996177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}