President Donald Trump said that his crackdown on crime in the District of Columbia would reach “further” to other major cities in blue states. But when he named some other possible targets, he left out cities in red states with higher crime rates, like New Orleans.
Elected officials who represent some of the cities Trump name-checked when he announced he would take over the District’s police department and activate the National Guard to patrol its streets are bracing for the possibility of the Trump administration trying to take more control of their homes. That the priority seems to be cities in blue states — regardless of how their crime rates size up — has not been lost on some Democrats.
One Louisiana Republican deferred to Trump in deciding which areas should get the same level of attention from the administration.
“I trust President Trump will direct resources where they are most needed to ensure the safety of America’s citizenry,” Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana said in a statement to NOTUS.
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Higgins argued that New Orleans “has been plagued by failed Democrat policies at the local level for decades.” But Louisiana, he said, is “making real progress in improving public safety” under Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s leadership.
New Orleans had the second-highest homicide rate in the country in 2024, according to data compiled by the Center for Public Safety Initiatives at the Rochester Institute of Technology. St. Louis topped the list, according to the data, and cities such as Washington, Chicago and New York — which Trump named as areas that need to “self-clean up” their crime rates — placed fourth, 20th and 22nd, respectively.
New Orleans’ homicide rate dropped by 32.4% from 2023 to 2024, according to the Center for Public Safety Initiatives’s data, a point that New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office emphasized to NOTUS.
“The City of New Orleans through the successful work of the dedicated women and men of the New Orleans Police Department continues to have major reductions in crime using constitutional policing practices,” Cantrell’s office said in a statement. “These successful crime reduction numbers for the city [have] been reported by FBI Data reports and other crime reporting organizations.”
Landry, a Republican, did not respond to a request for comment asking whether Trump should deploy the National Guard to combat crime in New Orleans.
Other Louisiana members of Congress are also tracking this new priority of Trump’s closely.
Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat who represents New Orleans, called Trump’s actions in Washington “an alarming and dangerous overreach by the Executive Branch.”
Though he didn’t specifically mention the city in his district, Carter cautioned that Trump’s “intrusion” in Washington is “bad for every city and town in America, red or blue.”
“If the President truly wants to help cities address crime and safety, there are ways to partner with local governments without usurping their authority or undermining their democratic rights,” Carter said in a statement to NOTUS. “This sets a dangerous precedent.”
Like Carter, other members of the Louisiana congressional delegation who weighed in did not speak to what this could mean for New Orleans specifically.
“President Trump is RIGHT. We can’t allow crime to destroy our Nation’s Capital,” Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X. “Every American should be able to visit and enjoy Washington, D.C. without fear. House Republicans support this effort to CLEAN UP Washington, END the crime wave, and RESTORE the beauty of the greatest capital in the world. MAGA.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also praised Trump and punctuated his comment with, “Make D.C. Safe Again!”
“The crime and chaos ends now. Our nation’s capital must be a symbol of safety and strength to the country and the world,” he wrote on X. “Congress will work with President Trump to restore law and order in Washington, D.C. Make D.C. Safe Again!”
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