Trump calls on National Guard to patrol D.C.

Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump promised to address crime in Washington, D.C. following an attack on a former DOGE employee. This week, the president put his plan into action. He ordered the deployment of 800 National Guardsmen to patrol the District. The guardsmen will be joined by members of a number of federal agencies. Is there more to the president’s decision than enforcing law and order?

The president will shift his focus from D.C. to Anchorage, Alaska and a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The two leaders are scheduled to discuss possible next steps towards an end to the war in Ukraine. Can president Trump negotiate peace without conceding to Russian demands?

The Trump administration has worked to push America’s cultural institutions further to the right. But can that shift expand past the halls of power? Is American society really growing more conservative?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to left, right, and center.
0:04.4	I'm McKay Coppins, filling in for David Green.
0:07.5	National Guard troops have taken to the streets in the nation's capital in recent days,
0:11.8	ordered up by President Donald Trump.
0:14.2	Here's the president explaining his reasoning at a press conference earlier in the week.
0:18.3	I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed,
0:24.6	bedlam, and squalor, and worse.
0:28.1	The president's decision came not long after news that a former Doge employee and Elon Musk
0:33.1	protégé, Edward Koresstein, had been bloodied in an attempted carjacking. But despite President
0:39.5	Trump's suggestion to the contrary, violent crime numbers in D.C. have actually been trending
0:43.5	downward these past couple of years. And the deployment in the nation's capital is part of a
0:48.3	larger picture. The same day that Trump was making his announcement, a trial got underway in
0:53.4	Los Angeles over the federalization of the National Guard in that city. making his announcement, a trial got underway in Los Angeles over the
0:54.5	federalization of the National Guard in that city. Earlier the summer, Trump ordered the National
0:59.1	Guard and Marines into L.A. to quell protests over immigration rates. So what's going on here? Why is
1:05.7	Trump using his presidential powers to send the U.S. military into American cities. And what should we make of it in
1:12.1	broader terms? From the left, we have Moa Lathie, executive director at Georgetown University's
1:17.8	Institute of Politics and Public Service. Moe is a former communications director for the Democratic
1:23.2	National Committee and an advisor to Hillary Clinton. And on the right, Antonia Ferrier.
1:29.9	She's a veteran communication strategist for several Republican members of Congress,
1:33.5	including former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
1:36.8	Hey, guys, how you doing?
	...

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