Vance pushes for crime crackdown at DC's Union Station

Vice President J.D. Vance and other Trump administration officials on Wednesday met with National Guard troops at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, which Vance claimed was because of the station's high crime rate.

President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the district last week, and deployed 800 D.C. National Guard troops to the capital to help patrol the city and reduce its crime rate. Although D.C. crime has decreased in recent years, at least statistically, the city still has one of the highest crime rates in the country. 

Vance told reporters at a Shake Shack in Union Station that he witnessed "violent vagrants" screaming at his children when they visited the station a couple of years ago, but that he believed it should be a place where families can go to restaurants or shopping.

“We have changed so much in nine days, and I thought it important to highlight how great of a space this could be, how easy it could be to actually enjoy something like Union Station if you just had politicians who stopped prioritizing violent criminals over public citizens who deserve public safety in their own communities,” Vance said, per CNN.

"I think Union Station is a great example of what's possible when you have the … willpower to bring law and order and common decency back to the public spaces of the United States of America," he added.

The visit comes the same day Washington, D.C. Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser claimed the district does not need federal assistance to make residents feel safe, ABC News reported.

"Crime has gone down in our city and it has gone down precipitously over the last two years because of a lot of hard work, changes to our public safety ecosystem, including changes to the law," Bowser said. "And we know that those facts don't comport to what some people are saying, but those are the facts."

The National Guard troops are expected to stay in the city for 30 days, but the deployment could be extended if Trump and Congress deem it necessary. Trump can only authorize the deployment for 30 days without congressional approval.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.