On August 11th, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a public safety emergency due to crime being “out of control in the District of Columbia.” The President invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 to place the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) under direct federal control. The President also called up 800 D.C. National Guardsmen to assist the MPD.

Our analysts rated four articles and two videos that took a closer look at President Trump’s decision in our Topic of the Week.

In three of the four articles our analysts rated, journalists from across the political spectrum shared personal stories of their own experiences with crime in our nation’s capital and their thoughts on President Trump’s approach to dealing with this issue.

The most minimally biased article in our content set came from journalist Josh Barro and his Substack newsletter, Very Serious. Barro moved to D.C. in 2008 and in his newsletter he analyzed crime in D.C. since he arrived in the city. Barro is skeptical of Trump’s approach to dealing with this problem and advocates for Democrats to acknowledge that crime in Washington, D.C. is a real issue for which Democrats can offer alternative solutions, like filling the judicial vacancies in the D.C. federal courts and giving money to the MPD, so they can hire more police officers. Our analysts found this article to be a mix of analysis and opinion.

Our analysts rated an article from New York Times’ columnist Maureen Dowd as a mix of analysis and opinion with bias that skews slightly to the left. Dowd, who was born and raised in D.C. and still mostly lives there today, wrote this column while her sister was at D.C. police headquarters to report on her car that was stolen in D.C., later found in Maryland in less than ideal conditions, cleaned and detailed and then promptly T-boned while parked. Like Barro, Dowd believes Democrats make a mistake by not acknowledging the issue of crime in Washington, D.C., but says Donald Trump is not the right person to address this issue because “Trump is playing the savior on crime when he’s the biggest scofflaw in town.”

Writing in The Spectator, Isaac Schorr recounts his “brush with death in D.C.” when a stray bullet hit his windshield as he was stopped at a red light while driving in Washington, D.C. Schorr believes presidential intervention to address the crime problem in D.C. is long overdue and is grateful for any attempt by the federal government to deal with the issue of crime in D.C. Schorr says “Washington, D.C. is a city with endless potential and should be a point of pride for all Americans…Yet for years now, it has been the modern model of corrupt, complacent governance – a national embarrassment that no one seemed to care enough about to try to fix.” Our team found this article to be mostly opinion with some minimal analysis and bias that skews right.

The final article in our content set comes from the Associated Press (AP). The AP article gives some historical background information about Washington, D.C.’s unique status as a federal district and what the D.C. Home Rule Act allows and explains what actions the President took in regards to the MPD and the D.C. National Guard. The AP article cited MPD statistics stating violent crime in D.C. in 2024 reached its lowest level in 30 years, but our analysts noted the AP failed to mention the veracity of this data has come into question, as the MPD suspended a police commander last month while it investigates allegations that he falsified crime statistics in his district. This lowered the reliability score and increased the bias score of this article, but our analysts found this article to be a mix of fact reporting and analysis that is minimally biased.

The most biased items in our content set came from the two videos that were rated this week. On the left, our analysts rated a clip from the The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Maddow suggests that Trump has deployed the D.C. National Guard because “he really enjoys using U.S. military force against American civilians on American soil and wants any excuse to do it anywhere he can.” Like the AP, Maddow cited MPD recent statistics about violent crime falling in D.C., but our analysts again noted she did not mention the accuracy of this data is now disputed. This lowered the reliability score and increased the bias score of this video. Our team found this video to be opinion with strong left bias.

On the right, our analysts rated a video from BlazeTV’s YouTube page taken from The Glenn Beck Program as opinion with bias that skews right. In the clip, Beck and Stu Burguiere discuss their unequivocal support of President Trump’s decision to take control of the MPD saying he has the “absolute right to do it.” Beck suggests Trump’s approach to lowering crime in D.C. is similar to what

Rudy Giuliani did as mayor of New York City in the 1990s through his “broken windows” policy focused on cracking down on minor crimes, such as vandalism and subway fare evasion, to prevent more serious crimes from occurring. If Trump is successful in reducing crime in Washington, D.C., Beck believes residents of the District will be so pleased Trump “actually has a chance of turning D.C. Republican.”

Want to see if you agree with our analysts? Find the articles and videos examined by our team on the Topic of the Week page of our website. https://adfontesmedia.com/topic-of-the-week-advanced/