Trump cleaned up crime in DC – and taught everyone a lesson in public safety

New York Post ^ | Dec. 18, 2025 Updated Dec. 19, 2025, 6:41 a.m. ET | Douglas Murray

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I never fail to be amazed at what we get used to.

Trundling along in the New York subway the other day, I saw all the usual sights.

Turnstile hoppers, of course, who never fail to aggravate me.

“Why am I the only mug who’s paying?” is my general feeling.

“Why did I just effectively pay for that guy’s journey as well?,” I think. Members of the National Guard and an officer from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department on foot patrols in the U Street neighborhood of Washington, Sunday, Nov., 30, 2025. Members of the National Guard and an officer from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department on foot patrols in the U Street neighborhood of Washington, Sunday, Nov., 30, 2025. AP

But perhaps these folks just misread New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s manifesto promises and think the subway, as well as the buses, are already free.

Then there were the homeless people everywhere, of course.

And unlike the turnstile hoppers, I feel nothing but profound sadness for these people.

It is such an indictment of a society that in one of the richest cities on Earth, we have so many people trying to find a patch of dry ground to make their own in this freezing weather.

And of course there are the crazy people, the unwell people and the people whom every passenger seems to be keeping a careful eye on as they holler at the subway car and shake their fists at the moon.

This isn’t normal.

It isn’t normal that a daily commute should also be a daily lesson in situational awareness.

But the lurking possibility of violence is something we New Yorkers are all used to.

And we don’t have to be. Capital improvement

I went down to DC this...

[GOPJ]

I remember my grandmother talking about the great depression and yeah, there were ‘bums’ but they were looking for work and put a chalk mark on the sidewalk in front of homes where people would find little odd jobs for them to do. My grandmother felt it marked her as a ‘soft touch’ and resented it. She would wash off the chaulk marks.

Fast forward to our hellhole days and we can see all the incentives that created this mess we have now with ‘homelessness’... or ‘how to claim benefits while destroying youerlife’. One out of four workers were unemployed during the great depression - and few of those peope were monsters like we see today.

[Resolute Conservative]

“situational awareness” ... Needs to be on every time you leave your house and sometimes in it. Don’t practice turning it off, you are not 100% safe anywhere you go.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Cleaning up DC won’t buy him anything there.

[grobdriver]

It is such an indictment of a society that in one of the richest cities on Earth

Doug, you're clueless.

99% of those people would be where they are even if you gave them a weekly check. Actually, maybe not - because they would spend it on sufficient drugs and booze that they'd probably be dead.

Society does not cause this, other than enable it through handouts and shelters. National parks have "Do not feed the animals" signs for a reason.

[rdcbn1]

For all the talk of No Kings and opposition to Trump's National Guard deployment a crime crackdown/ clean up in DC , very few residents want to go back to the bad old days of drive by shootings, carjackings and teen gangster crews running wild and assaulting people

Trump's greatest leverage is threatening people that he is backing down and handing DC back to Bowser and her gangster crews

[Vaduz]

Trump cleaned up crime in DC and it ticked of the democrats even more their motto Never Make Wave About Corruption.

[GOPJ]

You’re right - lots of people there like to wallow in filth.