Why has Trump ordered the army onto the streets of DC?

The News Agents

Global

Daily News, News, Government, Politics

4.2 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Violent gangs", "bloodthirsty criminals", "roving gangs of wild youths", "drugged out maniacs". These may sounds like scenes from a Charles Dickens novel, but they are the words used by Donald Trump to describe Washington DC, as he announced he was sending the National Guard in to the capital.

As recently as May, President Trump was proclaiming a sharp drop in crime in the city. Indeed, the official statistics suggest DC has made significant improvements in safety in the past couple of years. So why is he declaring a war on crime, and taking such drastic action, when the evidence doesn't back him up?

Later, a dispatch from Lewis in Las Vegas - already hit by a drop in tourism, and now seeing the effects of AI, which has already started to transform the town. Is it a sign of things to come for us all? And, if so, should we be scared?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity.
0:08.1	This is a global player original podcast.
0:11.9	Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth,
0:18.6	drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we're not going to let it
0:22.9	happen anymore.
0:23.8	That is Donald Trump not getting the job as chief marketing officer for Washington tourism.
0:30.8	The hellscape he paints of Washington to justify bringing in the National Guard people trained to fight wars is extraordinary.
0:42.4	Is this an authoritarian president going too far?
0:46.3	Or is it a trap that he's laying for his Democrat rivals?
0:50.6	Welcome to the news agents.
0:56.4	The Newsagents. It's John.
0:58.7	And it's Lewis, still in Nevada.
1:00.2	Oh, I didn't...
1:01.3	Oh, you're still in Nevada.
1:02.6	Interesting.
1:04.3	Put it this way, John.
1:05.1	After last night at Caesar's Palace,
1:07.1	any hope of any further trips
1:08.7	to the rest of the year
1:09.6	for you have long since evaporated. We're going to have to sell that dog bed that Emily brings in half the time. Honestly, I tell you what, we're going to talk about law and order in Washington, D.C. and what Donald Trump's doing, but what I heard about what you got up to last night, Christ, they've got a problem in Nevada as well now. Everything on red, always everything on red. It all works.
1:28.9	Very good.
1:30.1	Look, so what Donald Trump has done is quite extraordinary.
	...

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