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Live

Glenn's Show Prep

Morning Brief 2024-01-30

January 30, 2024
Chris Brady

No guests slated for today's show. Subject to change.

John 14:27

John 14:27

News...

Man Who Leaked Trump’s Tax Returns Sentenced to Five Years
A former contractor at the Internal Revenue Service who disclosed the tax records of Trump to the New York Times and those of billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to ProPublica received a five-year prison sentence on Monday.

Trump Tax Leaker Gets The Hunter Biden Treatment With ‘Sweetheart Deal’ From DOJ
In a new court filing, prosecutors acknowledge the plea deal “does not account for the fact that he leaked thousands of individuals’ tax returns. His [sentencing] range would be the same today if he had leaked only a single return.”

Jury Deliberates Fate Of Six Pro-Lifers Facing 11 Years In Prison Over Peaceful Protest
The jury is set to deliberate on the fate of six pro-lifers who face 11 years in prison after being accused by the Biden Department of Justice of a conspiracy against rights over a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility in March 2021.

AP admits NY AG's civil case against Trump is unprecedented in 70 years of case history
It is the only case of its sort "without a showing of obvious victims and major losses."

E. Jean Carroll says she's taking Rachel Maddow shopping for luxury items with $83 million Trump award to help 'shore up women's rights'
"First thing, Rachel, you and I are gonna go shopping. We're gonna get completely new wardrobes, new shoes," and she talked about getting a motorcycle for one of her attorneys and a fishing rod for the other as they all beamed. "Rachel, what do you want? Penthouse?" Carroll asked. "It's yours!"

Washington state lawmakers propose 11% tax on the ‘privilege’ of buying ammunition
Public safety is the reason given for the introduction of the bill.

Supreme Court clerks are being offered up to $500,000 signing bonuses to join top DC law firms
Powerful law firms battle each other to snag law clerks who worked at the Supreme Court, with some offering thousands of dollars for these clerks to bring their experience and knowledge of the high court into their fold.

America's fastest-shrinking cities
As retirees and professionals are priced out, analysts show the 15 cities that will shrivel by up to a quarter this century.

Texas woman who allegedly stole $103 million from Army got to retire with full benefits
Woman accused of stealing more than $100 million from the Army retired with full benefits despite an ongoing criminal investigation into an alleged six-year fraud scheme, according to an Army spokesperson.

Politics...

NY Times: Inside Biden’s Anti-Trump Battle Plan (and Where Taylor Swift Fits In)
Watching Trump ascend, the newly energized Biden campaign is aiming to make the general election all about him. It’s also hoping for some big endorsements.

Poll finds a fifth of voters 'likely' to back candidate endorsed by Taylor Swift
In a poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek, 18 percent of voters say they're "more likely" or "significantly more likely" to vote for a candidate endorsed by Taylor Swift. Her sway was more visible with voters under the age of 35.

Five Years Ago, Joe Biden Spread The Jussie Smollett Hate Crime Hoax
Monday marked the five-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s online condemnation of a “hate crime” that never happened.

Snopes admits Biden wore construction hard hat backwards in 'fact-check' reversal
Biden was pictured in Wisconsin with a hard hat tightening strap on his forehead.

Gavin Newsom tells Joe how he would beat Trump
“It’s not even a complicated campaign. We have the receipts. We have the best three-year record of any modern American presidency. Period. Full stop.”

Manchin 'absolutely' can see himself as president, thinks Biden health or Trump conviction could give opening
Manchin told CNN he's worried about "far-left liberals" in Biden White House.

Pelosi yells at protesters: ‘Go back to China!’
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shouted back at anti-Israel protesters outside her home, telling them at one point to “go back to China” and claiming that was where their “headquarters” were located.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman was a 9-11 'truther,' wrote awful poems about it at the time
“2001/Planes used as missiles/Target: The Twin Towers. Later in the day/Building 7/Also Collaspsed [sic]/Hmm.../Multiple explosions/Heard before/And during the collapse/Hmm…" He also recommend people watch "Loose Change" and other truther nonsense.

They Blamed Israel for Hamas’ Attack. Jamaal Bowman Is Touting Their Endorsement.
New York congressman embraces anti-Israel group the Jewish Vote amid rift with Jewish community.

Bowman’s re-election effort could be upended as GOP and independent voters urged to register as Democrats
Bowman has come under heavy fire from his Jewish constituents over his position on the Israel-Hamas war. Several Jewish-supporting groups are throwing their vote behind George Latimer, who has campaigned as a staunch supporter of Israel.

DOJ Announces Merrick Garland’s Surgery After Lloyd Austin Debacle
Garland will temporarily step aside from his duties due to an impending back surgery scheduled for Saturday.

DOJ Investigating House Democrat for Improperly Using Government Money: Report
The lawmaker, unknown at this time, is accused of abusing the members' representational allowance.

Vulnerable House Dem caught on Zoom call lamenting 'Trump Kool-Aid' voters in her district
Rep. Susan Wild (Pa.) said Carbon County, which is located in her district, drank the "Trump Kool-Aid."

Biden NY delegate has criminal record after scamming Syracuse schools, owes state $101K in back taxes
James “Jimmy” Monto III — who pleaded guilty to falsifying business records while he was an employee with the Syracuse City School District — is on Biden’s list of pledged delegates in the 22nd Congressional District for his re-election campaign.

Economy / ESG / DEI...

Disneyland Posts Woke ‘Wheel Of Privilege’ In Employee Kitchen, Removes It After Daily Wire Inquiry
Posters featuring a “wheel of power/privilege” were hung in employee spaces in Disneyland, instructing employees that being white, “cisgender male,” and even speaking English means you have “unearned” privilege that your “marginalized” coworkers do not.

Boeing’s reputation takes a hit after 737 Max 9 fallout, survey shows
Boeing's net trust rating has dropped 12% since December.

Yes, DEI Will Make More Planes Fall Out Of The Sky
Let’s say 100 open pilot positions can be filled by either tall or short people. Under normal conditions, the airline would rightly assume height does not make you better or worse at flying, so it will ignore that metric and instead recruit the people with the most skill and experience at flying planes.

Immigration...

GB Poll: Does Texas have the right to defend itself?
This is arguably the greatest constitutional crisis facing the U.S. in recent history, and Glenn wants to know what YOU think should be done.

Mayorkas’ impending impeachment would be first for Cabinet member in 150 years
House Republicans filed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis, which they blame on the secretary’s ineptitude. The drastic move has no modern precedent.

Kristi Noem requests joint session to brief state legislature on ‘war zone’ at southern border
Noem’s request for the session asked that it be held on Wednesday. During the session, Noem aims to also explain potential ways South Dakota will respond to the border crisis.

WAR News... 

Pentagon says Israel-Hamas war isn't spreading despite US soldiers killed in Jordan, Red Sea attacks
There have been more than 160 attacks on U.S. targets in the Middle East since October 17.

Iran has enough uranium to build 12 nuclear bombs in just 5 months, says former UN weapons inspector
The Telegraph reported that the details came out after the International Atomic Energy Authority said Iran has increased its production of enriched uranium by up to 60% purity, which is required for creating nuclear bombs.

Flashback to Oct 2023: ‘The Middle East Region Is Quieter Today Than It Has Been in Two Decades’
A week ago, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, sounded optimistic about the region.

Why are US troops in Jordan?
There are approximately 3,000 troops stationed in Jordan. There are also 2,500 troops in Iraq, who are there at the invitation of the country’s government to help defend it against ISIS, and 900 in Syria.

Intelligence Reveals Details of UN Agency Staff’s Links to Oct. 7 Attack
Around 10% of Palestinian aid agency’s 12,000 staff in Gaza have links to militants, according to intelligence dossier.

Biden allowed US funds to flow to UN agency linked to Hamas terror attack
In a predictable twist, Biden's reversal of Trump's UNRWA funding suspension has backfired, entangling U.S. dollars with suspected terror ties.

Iranians Enlisted Canadian Hells Angels Biker To Assassinate Dissident in US, Feds Say
An Iranian national allegedly coordinated with two Canadian bikers between December 2020 and March 2021 to kill two people then living in Maryland, one of whom had fled the Islamic Republic, the DOJ said in a release.

Anti-Israel federal workers plan a one-day 'hunger strike'
Wow, what a powerful statement. BTW, do milk shakes count as food? Because anything you can drink through a straw isn't really food, right?

Entertainment...

William Shatner Scolds EU Over Plan To Censor Gendered Language In Iconic ‘Star Trek’ Intro
In addition to advising against the use of phrases like “no-man’s land” — suggesting “unclaimed territory” as an alternative — the document addressed the problematic goals of the Galactic Federation, namely “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Media...

Blaze journalist Steve Baker appears on Tim Pool's podcast, talks looming threat of charges for Jan. 6 coverage
During an appearance on Tim Pool's "Timcast IRL" podcast, Blaze Media journalist Steve Baker spoke about the looming threat he faces of being charged in connection with his journalistic work covering the January 6, 2021, episode at the U.S. Capitol.

Europe...

French farmers blockade Paris in heated protest
Protesters said they felt left behind by the urban national government and that many politicians don’t take the needs of rural Frenchmen seriously. About 15,000 police were deployed around Paris to keep the city itself safe, the government said.

South America...

‘There Is No Plan B’: Argentina’s President Milei Takes Hard Line On Return To Capitalism
Milei conducted an exclusive interview with Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker, who asked, “I want to know how long you think the Argentine people can wait to see signs that your plan is working.”

Environment...

World’s largest cruise ship stokes environmental concerns
The ship is roughly five times the size of the Titanic and has a maximum passenger capacity of 7,600. The launch of the giant floating resort has sparked renewed concerns about the environmental impact of cruise tourism.

LGBTQIA2S+...

Utah Ban On Men Using Women's Bathrooms Awaits Governor’s Signature
Lawmakers passed the ban, called the “Sex-based Designations for Privacy, Anti-bullying and Women’s Opportunities,” on Friday in a 58-16 vote.

California’s Cash Handout Program For ‘Trans’ Residents Is ‘Illegal,’ Lawsuit Alleges
Several San Francisco residents are suing city officials over an allegedly “illegal” program that provides taxpayer funds to black and Latino biological men who “identify as females.”

Education...

Biden Education Department Met With SPLC Before Center Put Parental Rights Groups on Its ‘Hate Map’
A high-ranking official at the Department of Education under Biden met with representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center a year before the center put parental rights groups, including Moms for Liberty, on its “hate map” alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

Georgia’s K-5 ‘Social Studies’ Curriculum Is A Trojan Horse For Leftism
Kids from Savannah to Sparta must be primed for spotting ‘systemic injustices’ before they leave elementary school.

Senators Propose Bipartisan Bill To Keep Lab-Grown Meat Off The School Lunch Menu
“Our students should not be test subjects for cell-cultivated ‘meat’ experiments,” said Sen. Rounds.

AI...

George Carlin's estate sues podcasters over AI-generated comedy special
"Defendants therefore admitted that they input thousands of hours of George Carlin's original, copyrighted routines to an AI machine that Defendants operate to fabricate a semblance of Carlin's voice and generate a Carlin stand-up comedy routine," the lawsuit read.

AI spam is already starting to ruin the internet
Scammers are using AI to spit out webpages and YouTube videos that game Google.

Science...

Something 'fishy' is happening with the Milky Way's dark matter halo
For reasons that remain mysterious, it seems our galaxy is different from the others.

A crane will lift space shuttle Endeavour into place for museum exhibit today
A 450-foot crane will install Endeavour at its designated spot in the California Science Center "in a massive and technically challenging process that has never before been accomplished outside of a NASA or Air Force facility," museum representatives said.

Travel...

State Department urges Bahamas travelers to use ‘extreme caution’ when visiting Nassau
“Murders have occurred in all hours including in broad daylight on the streets,” according to a security alert that was posted on Jan. 24 by the U.S. embassy in the Bahamas. Retaliatory gang violence has been the primary motive, the alert said.

Sports...

49ers-Lions NFC championship tops 56 million viewers, most-watched telecast since the Super Bowl
The game’s viewership was up 19% from last year’s NFC championship game between the Philadelphia Eagles and 49ers.

CBS actually showed Taylor Swift for less than half a percent of AFC championship game time
CBS showed crab cakes and aquarium B-roll footage for more combined time than the network showed Swift.

Jan 30, 2009 - Glenn talks with Mayor Giuliani... Support falling for stimulus... Super Bowl More On Trivia: Arizona vs. Pittsburgh... Stu reports from the road... Universal health care... Glenn talks with Jon Huntsman about the Huntsman Cancer Foundation...

Trump's proposal explained: Ukraine's path to peace without NATO expansion

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Contributor | Getty Images

Strategic compromise, not absolute victory, often ensures lasting stability.

When has any country been asked to give up land it won in a war? Even if a nation is at fault, the punishment must be measured.

After World War I, Germany, the main aggressor, faced harsh penalties under the Treaty of Versailles. Germans resented the restrictions, and that resentment fueled the rise of Adolf Hitler, ultimately leading to World War II. History teaches that justice for transgressions must avoid creating conditions for future conflict.

Ukraine and Russia must choose to either continue the cycle of bloodshed or make difficult compromises in pursuit of survival and stability.

Russia and Ukraine now stand at a similar crossroads. They can cling to disputed land and prolong a devastating war, or they can make concessions that might secure a lasting peace. The stakes could not be higher: Tens of thousands die each month, and the choice between endless bloodshed and negotiated stability hinges on each side’s willingness to yield.

History offers a guide. In 1967, Israel faced annihilation. Surrounded by hostile armies, the nation fought back and seized large swaths of territory from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. Yet Israel did not seek an empire. It held only the buffer zones needed for survival and returned most of the land. Security and peace, not conquest, drove its decisions.

Peace requires concessions

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says both Russia and Ukraine will need to “get something” from a peace deal. He’s right. Israel proved that survival outweighs pride. By giving up land in exchange for recognition and an end to hostilities, it stopped the cycle of war. Egypt and Israel have not fought in more than 50 years.

Russia and Ukraine now press opposing security demands. Moscow wants a buffer to block NATO. Kyiv, scarred by invasion, seeks NATO membership — a pledge that any attack would trigger collective defense by the United States and Europe.

President Donald Trump and his allies have floated a middle path: an Article 5-style guarantee without full NATO membership. Article 5, the core of NATO’s charter, declares that an attack on one is an attack on all. For Ukraine, such a pledge would act as a powerful deterrent. For Russia, it might be more palatable than NATO expansion to its border

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

Peace requires concessions. The human cost is staggering: U.S. estimates indicate 20,000 Russian soldiers died in a single month — nearly half the total U.S. casualties in Vietnam — and the toll on Ukrainians is also severe. To stop this bloodshed, both sides need to recognize reality on the ground, make difficult choices, and anchor negotiations in security and peace rather than pride.

Peace or bloodshed?

Both Russia and Ukraine claim deep historical grievances. Ukraine arguably has a stronger claim of injustice. But the question is not whose parchment is older or whose deed is more valid. The question is whether either side is willing to trade some land for the lives of thousands of innocent people. True security, not historical vindication, must guide the path forward.

History shows that punitive measures or rigid insistence on territorial claims can perpetuate cycles of war. Germany’s punishment after World War I contributed directly to World War II. By contrast, Israel’s willingness to cede land for security and recognition created enduring peace. Ukraine and Russia now face the same choice: Continue the cycle of bloodshed or make difficult compromises in pursuit of survival and stability.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The loneliness epidemic: Are machines replacing human connection?

NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

Seniors, children, and the isolated increasingly rely on machines for conversation, risking real relationships and the emotional depth that only humans provide.

Jill Smola is 75 years old. She’s a retiree from Orlando, Florida, and she spent her life caring for the elderly. She played games, assembled puzzles, and offered company to those who otherwise would have sat alone.

Now, she sits alone herself. Her husband has died. She has a lung condition. She can’t drive. She can’t leave her home. Weeks can pass without human interaction.

Loneliness is an epidemic. And AI will not fix it. It will only dull the edges and make a diminished life tolerable.

But CBS News reports that she has a new companion. And she likes this companion more than her own daughter.

The companion? Artificial intelligence.

She spends five hours a day talking to her AI friend. They play games, do trivia, and just talk. She says she even prefers it to real people.

My first thought was simple: Stop this. We are losing our humanity.

But as I sat with the story, I realized something uncomfortable. Maybe we’ve already lost some of our humanity — not to AI, but to ourselves.

Outsourcing presence

How often do we know the right thing to do yet fail to act? We know we should visit the lonely. We know we should sit with someone in pain. We know what Jesus would do: Notice the forgotten, touch the untouchable, offer time and attention without outsourcing compassion.

Yet how often do we just … talk about it? On the radio, online, in lectures, in posts. We pontificate, and then we retreat.

I asked myself: What am I actually doing to close the distance between knowing and doing?

Human connection is messy. It’s inconvenient. It takes patience, humility, and endurance. AI doesn’t challenge you. It doesn’t interrupt your day. It doesn’t ask anything of you. Real people do. Real people make us confront our pride, our discomfort, our loneliness.

We’ve built an economy of convenience. We can have groceries delivered, movies streamed, answers instantly. But friendships — real relationships — are slow, inefficient, unpredictable. They happen in the blank spaces of life that we’ve been trained to ignore.

And now we’re replacing that inefficiency with machines.

AI provides comfort without challenge. It eliminates the risk of real intimacy. It’s an elegant coping mechanism for loneliness, but a poor substitute for life. If we’re not careful, the lonely won’t just be alone — they’ll be alone with an anesthetic, a shadow that never asks for anything, never interrupts, never makes them grow.

Reclaiming our humanity

We need to reclaim our humanity. Presence matters. Not theory. Not outrage. Action.

It starts small. Pull up a chair for someone who eats alone. Call a neighbor you haven’t spoken to in months. Visit a nursing home once a month — then once a week. Ask their names, hear their stories. Teach your children how to be present, to sit with someone in grief, without rushing to fix it.

Turn phones off at dinner. Make Sunday afternoons human time. Listen. Ask questions. Don’t post about it afterward. Make the act itself sacred.

Humility is central. We prefer machines because we can control them. Real people are inconvenient. They interrupt our narratives. They demand patience, forgiveness, and endurance. They make us confront ourselves.

A friend will challenge your self-image. A chatbot won’t.

Our homes are quieter. Our streets are emptier. Loneliness is an epidemic. And AI will not fix it. It will only dull the edges and make a diminished life tolerable.

Before we worry about how AI will reshape humanity, we must first practice humanity. It can start with 15 minutes a day of undivided attention, presence, and listening.

Change usually comes when pain finally wins. Let’s not wait for that. Let’s start now. Because real connection restores faster than any machine ever will.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Exposed: The radical Left's bloody rampage against America

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

For years, the media warned of right-wing terror. But the bullets, bombs, and body bags are piling up on the left — with support from Democrat leaders and voters.

For decades, the media and federal agencies have warned Americans that the greatest threat to our homeland is the political right — gun-owning veterans, conservative Christians, anyone who ever voted for President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden once declared that white supremacy is “the single most dangerous terrorist threat” in the nation.

Since Trump’s re-election, the rhetoric has only escalated. Outlets like the Washington Post and the Guardian warned that his second term would trigger a wave of far-right violence.

As Democrats bleed working-class voters and lose control of their base, they’re not moderating. They’re radicalizing.

They were wrong.

The real domestic threat isn’t coming from MAGA grandmas or rifle-toting red-staters. It’s coming from the radical left — the anarchists, the Marxists, the pro-Palestinian militants, and the anti-American agitators who have declared war on law enforcement, elected officials, and civil society.

Willful blindness

On July 4, a group of black-clad terrorists ambushed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Alvarado, Texas. They hurled fireworks at the building, spray-painted graffiti, and then opened fire on responding law enforcement, shooting a local officer in the neck. Journalist Andy Ngo has linked the attackers to an Antifa cell in the Dallas area.

Authorities have so far charged 14 people in the plot and recovered AR-style rifles, body armor, Kevlar vests, helmets, tactical gloves, and radios. According to the Department of Justice, this was a “planned ambush with intent to kill.”

And it wasn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a growing pattern of continuous violent left-wing incidents since December last year.

Monthly attacks

Most notably, in December 2024, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan. Mangione reportedly left a manifesto raging against the American health care system and was glorified by some on social media as a kind of modern Robin Hood.

One Emerson College poll found that 41% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 said the murder was “acceptable” or “somewhat acceptable.”

The next month, a man carrying Molotov cocktails was arrested near the U.S. Capitol. He allegedly planned to assassinate Trump-appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

In February, the “Tesla Takedown” attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships started picking up traction.

In March, a self-described “queer scientist” was arrested after allegedly firebombing the Republican Party headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Graffiti on the burned building read “ICE = KKK.”

In April, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-Pa.) official residence was firebombed on Passover night. The suspect allegedly set the governor’s mansion on fire because of what Shapiro, who is Jewish, “wants to do to the Palestinian people.”

In May, two young Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Witnesses said the shooter shouted “Free Palestine” as he was being arrested. The suspect told police he acted “for Gaza” and was reportedly linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

In June, an Egyptian national who had entered the U.S. illegally allegedly threw a firebomb at a peaceful pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado. Eight people were hospitalized, and an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor later died from her injuries.

That same month, a pro-Palestinian rioter in New York was arrested for allegedly setting fire to 11 police vehicles. In Los Angeles, anti-ICE rioters smashed cars, set fires, and hurled rocks at law enforcement. House Democrats refused to condemn the violence.

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

In Portland, Oregon, rioters tried to burn down another ICE facility and assaulted police officers before being dispersed with tear gas. Graffiti left behind read: “Kill your masters.”

On July 7, a Michigan man opened fire on a Customs and Border Protection facility in McAllen, Texas, wounding two police officers and an agent. Border agents returned fire, killing the suspect.

Days later in California, ICE officers conducting a raid on an illegal cannabis farm in Ventura County were attacked by left-wing activists. One protester appeared to fire at federal agents.

This is not a series of isolated incidents. It’s a timeline of escalation. Political assassinations, firebombings, arson, ambushes — all carried out in the name of radical leftist ideology.

Democrats are radicalizing

This isn’t just the work of fringe agitators. It’s being enabled — and in many cases encouraged — by elected Democrats.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz routinely calls ICE “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass attempted to block an ICE operation in her city. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu compared ICE agents to a neo-Nazi group. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson referred to them as “secret police terrorizing our communities.”

Apparently, other Democratic lawmakers, according to Axios, are privately troubled by their own base. One unnamed House Democrat admitted that supporters were urging members to escalate further: “Some of them have suggested what we really need to do is be willing to get shot.” Others were demanding blood in the streets to get the media’s attention.

A study from Rutgers University and the National Contagion Research Institute found that 55% of Americans who identify as “left of center” believe that murdering Donald Trump would be at least “somewhat justified.”

As Democrats bleed working-class voters and lose control of their base, they’re not moderating. They’re radicalizing. They don’t want the chaos to stop. They want to harness it, normalize it, and weaponize it.

The truth is, this isn’t just about ICE. It’s not even about Trump. It’s about whether a republic can survive when one major party decides that our institutions no longer apply.

Truth still matters. Law and order still matter. And if the left refuses to defend them, then we must be the ones who do.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

America's comeback: Trump is crushing crime in the Capitol

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

Trump’s DC crackdown is about more than controlling crime — it’s about restoring America’s strength and credibility on the world stage.

Donald Trump on Monday invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deploying the National Guard to restore law and order. This move is long overdue.

D.C.’s crime problem has been spiraling for years as local authorities and Democratic leadership have abandoned the nation’s capital to the consequences of their own failed policies. The city’s murder rate is about three times higher than that of Islamabad, Pakistan, and 18 times higher than that of communist-led Havana, Cuba.

When DC is in chaos, it sends a message to the world that America is weak.

Theft, assaults, and carjackings have transformed many of its streets into war zones. D.C. saw a 32% increase in homicides from 2022 to 2023, marking the highest number in two decades and surpassing both New York and Los Angeles. Even if crime rates dropped to 2019 levels, that wouldn’t be good enough.

Local leaders have downplayed the crisis, manipulating crime stats to preserve their image. Felony assault, for example, is no longer considered a “violent crime” in their crime stats. Same with carjacking. But the reality on the streets is different. People in D.C. are living in constant fear.

Trump isn’t waiting for the crime rate to improve on its own. He’s taking action.

Broken windows theory in action

Trump’s takeover of D.C. puts the “broken windows theory” into action — the idea that ignoring minor crimes invites bigger ones. When authorities look the other way on turnstile-jumping or graffiti, they signal that lawbreaking carries no real consequence.

Rudy Giuliani used this approach in the 1990s to clean up New York, cracking down on small offenses before they escalated. Trump is doing the same in the capital, drawing a hard line and declaring enough is enough. Letting crime fester in Washington tells the world that the seat of American power tolerates lawlessness.

What Trump is doing for D.C. isn’t just about law enforcement — it’s about national identity. When D.C. is in chaos, it sends a message to the world that America is weak. The capital city represents the soul of the country. If we can’t even keep our own capital safe, how can we expect anyone to take us seriously?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Reversing the decline

Anyone who has visited D.C. regularly over the past several years has witnessed its rapid decline. Homeless people bathe in the fountains outside Union Station. People are tripping out in Dupont Circle. The left’s negligence is a disgrace, enabling drug use and homelessness to explode on our capital’s streets while depriving these individuals of desperately needed care and help.

Restoring law and order to D.C. is not about politics or scoring points. It’s about doing what’s right for the people. It’s about protecting communities, taking the vulnerable off the streets, and sending the message to both law-abiding and law-breaking citizens alike that the rule of law matters.

D.C. should be a lesson to the rest of America. If we want to take our cities back, we need leadership willing to take bold action. Trump is showing how to do it.

Now, it’s time for other cities to step up and follow his lead. We can restore law and order. We can make our cities something to be proud of again.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.