Former White House aide Alyssa Farah Griffin weighed in on President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington to help curb crime rates, suggesting that he is trying to “goad Democrats.”
“He thinks the nation‘s capital should represent the best of America. But I think he‘s also doing something that Trump is very good at, which he‘s goading Democrats into the fight that he wants to have,” Farah Griffin, a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” said during an appearance on CNN’s “AC360.”
“Now, there‘s a very reasonable and important debate to be had over federalizing law enforcement and deploying the National Guard on American streets,” she continued. “That‘s the debate we should be having. He‘s really trying to goad Democrats into arguing ‘there‘s no crime in D.C. D.C. is great.'”
The president announced Monday that the Justice Department (DOJ) would take control over the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and about 800 National Guard troops would be deployed in the nation’s capital as part of the administration’s effort to curb crime.
The effort comes despite city crime data showing violent crime is down 26 percent compared to 2024. Homicides have been down 32 percent compared to 2023, although the number of homicides in 2024 was still above the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NBC4 reported last month that an MPD police commander, Michael Pulliam, was put on leave in May and is being probed after allegedly altering crime statistics in his district.
“I lived there for 10 years. I‘m there all the time. You spend time there, you see a lot of crime. It feels worse. The stats may bear otherwise, but there‘s communities that didn‘t feel unsafe a few years ago that just don‘t feel as safe as they once did,” Farah Griffin told host Anderson Cooper.
“And he is begging and goading Democrats into saying it‘s actually much better than you think, because crime is an issue Trump has generally performed very well on,” she added. “That‘s what he‘s getting at here.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, along with other Democratic mayors and the party’s federal lawmakers, have assailed the Trump administration’s decision. Bowser called the push “unsettling and unprecedented” and added Monday that she will “work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster.”
