Trump federalizes D.C. police, calls capital crime ’embarrassing’

President Donald Trump called the spiraling crime in Washington, D.C., “embarrassing” as he prepares for high-stakes meetings with foreign leaders, pointing directly to his highly anticipated Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“This is an emergency,” Trump told the media during his press conference Monday morning announcing he is federalizing the. D.C. police force to curb crime in the city. “This is a tragic emergency. And it’s embarrassing for me to be up here.” 

“You know, I’m going to see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday. I don’t like being up here talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was, with graffiti all over the walls,” he continued. 

Trump is scheduled to meet with Putin in Alaska Friday, which is strategically located between D.C. and Moscow. 

Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital Monday and announced the National Guard and hundreds of other law enforcement officials from various agencies will descend on the city to prevent further crimes. 

TRUMP IS THREATENING TO ‘FEDERALIZE’ DC WITH NATIONAL GUARD AND MORE. HERE’S HOW THAT COULD PLAY OUT

“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” he said. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re not going to take it.” 

Washington, D.C.’s crime rate spiraled followed the national increase in violent crimes in 2020, when social justice protests and riots broke out in cities nationwide at the height of pandemic.

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The crime trends in the nation’s capital have ebbed and flowed in the subsequent years, including carjackings, shootings and murders spiking before Trump reclaimed the Oval Office in January. The city has been plagued by a handful of high-profile crimes in recent weeks, including the fatal shooting of a congressional intern in June, the fatal shooting of a pair of Israeli embassy staffers in May, and a brutal attack on a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer earlier in August. 

Local Democrat leaders have slammed Trump over the move to federalize the police, including D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb arguing on X that there is no crime emergency, pointing to…