Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. I'm Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Today I'm joined by Heather McDonald. Heather is the Manhattan Institute's Thomas W. Smith

Fellow. She's a contributing editor of City Journal and has written from the magazine almost since its inception.

Her byline appears regularly in the Wall Street Journal and many other leading publications,

and she's the author of a number of books, including the bestsellers, win race, Trump's

merit, the diversity delusion, and the war on cops. Today, we're going to discuss the newly

inaugurated President Trump and his role, to the extent he has a role in restoring safety

in order to American communities and cities. So Heather, great to talk with you as always.

Your recent piece for City Journal, Ken Trump make America safe again, describes how the Biden

Justice Department and other federal agencies over the last

four years have really failed to prioritize public safety, instead promoting a program of DEI hiring

and disparate impact analysis that I think you can make a plausible argument has contributed to a

decline in safety and law and order. They also

identified the number one domestic terrorist threat as white supremacy. They had, in other words,

a kind of radical approach to criminal justice questions on the federal level. So, you know,

what were the consequences of these policies during Biden's

term? Well, thank you so much for having me on, Brian. It's always a pleasure. The consequences

were inevitably ignoring the real disorder that was engulfing cities that began, frankly, under

Trump's watch with the George Floyd race riots that resulted in complete anarchy, the

glorification of violence ideologically supported by many members of the left. And Biden claimed

that the biggest problem was white supremacy. This was simply counterfactual. The Department of

Homeland Security, various

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