The Trump administration’s crime clampdown in partnership with local police in Washington, D.C., has focused especially on more dangerous areas of the district.
Nearly half of crime-related arrests in D.C. have occurred in Wards 7 and 8 since Aug. 8, the day President Donald Trump began flooding the capital city with federal law enforcement, a White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The two wards, which account for 11% of the district’s population as of 2020, accounted for almost 60% of the district’s homicides in 2024, according to an earlier Washington Post report.
The reported arrest data contradicts media coverage claiming that the president’s efforts have ignored hard-hit D.C. neighborhoods.
Under Trump’s DC crack down, 52 arrests were made last night, including the arrest of an illegal MS-13 gang member with convictions for DWI and Drug Possession, a White House official tells @DailyCaller.
Since 8/8, three known gang members have been arrested, the source adds.…
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) August 19, 2025
Trump increased the number of federal law enforcement officers across D.C., deployed the National Guard in prominent areas such as Union Station, and began a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in response to his complaints about local crime.
Since Trump’s recent push, 212 people have been arrested in D.C. on charges ranging from drug, gun, DUI and assault crimes, according to the White House. Forty-eight percent reportedly happened in Wards 7 and 8, including 35 gun charges. Roughly 500 people are responsible for about 60-70% of gun violence across D.C., the National Institute for Criminal Justice reform found in a 2021 study.
Two Ward 8 advisory neighborhood commissioners told NBC4 that they would welcome federal authorities’ help in stopping gun, drug and burglary offenses. Residents of D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood told USA Today that they would be happy to see more law enforcement in their community, the outlet reported Thursday.
One out of 52 D.C. arrests on Monday night included an alleged MS-13 gang member with past convictions, the Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese reported, citing a White House official.
D.C. had the fourth-highest murder rate in the U.S. and saw an increase in aggravated assaults in 2024, according to data from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the FBI, respectively.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that the White House confirmed the data.
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