WTH: Trump's Capital Crime Crackdown. Rafael Mangual Explains.
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
According to major news outlets, the capital of the free world is under federal occupation by Donald Trump. Here in D.C., the 30-day public emergency has expired and Pam Bondi’s “takeover” of the MPD has ended, but National Guard troops aren’t going anywhere with an extended deployment to Nov. 30th. Their presence has led to a major reduction in violent crime, but what happens when they vacate? Is this something that could or should be replicated in other cities across the country? Beyond this highly successful stop gap measure, how can we keep our cities safe?
Rafael Mangual is the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a member of the Council on Criminal Justice. He has authored and coauthored a number of MI reports and op-eds on issues ranging from urban crime and jail violence to broader matters of criminal and civil justice reform. In 2025, he was appointed to serve a second term as a member of the New York State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.1 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. |
| 0:07.1 | Thanks for listening. Here's our show. |
| 0:08.7 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:10.5 | What's really going on? |
| 0:12.0 | We said, what the hell happened? |
| 0:13.5 | You don't have to know what the hell is on it. |
| 0:15.6 | They see what's going on. |
| 0:16.7 | I don't know what's going on. |
| 0:18.0 | What is going on? |
| 0:20.0 | We must find out what's going on. What is going on? We must find out what is going on. |
| 0:28.6 | Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:30.3 | And I'm Mark Tiesin. |
| 0:31.3 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:34.7 | Mark, what the hell? |
| 0:36.1 | What the hell is going on is Donald Trump has cleaned up crime in the District of Columbia. |
| 0:41.1 | We have what the Guardian calls the federal occupation of D.C. |
| 0:46.1 | We're the new Gaza. |
| 0:47.0 | I knew you would love that. |
| 0:48.1 | I know. It's so awesome. |
| 0:49.6 | But the mayor of D.C. seems to disagree, unlike the mayor of Gaza City, because the mayor of D.C. just signed a executive order having indefinite cooperation with federal officials and says that crime is down. You know, I find this amazing about Donald Trump. And not so much about Donald Trump, but about the Democrats, is that in so many of these cases, it's just a matter of political will. The tools are all there to solve these problems. Donald Trump, you know, he solved the border crisis in five seconds. And it was just a matter of having a president who was willing to exercise the authorities that he had. And here in the same thing in the District of Columbia, it's like, you know, violent crime is down like 87% in a matter of a few weeks. And it was just a matter of will. And Donald Trump, you know, and now DC officials are cooperating and they're thrilled with it. But why didn't they do that? Why didn't they ask the last president to do this? Why didn't they ask for it? You know, it's great that they've come around, but they should, they, this, all these |
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