On a single night during President Donald Trump's federalization of Washington, D.C., 29 illegal immigrants were arrested, according to a press briefing by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday.
A total of 45 arrests were made Wednesday night by hundreds of Metropolitan Police and National Guard troops deployed to the area.
“There were 29 illegal aliens removed off of Washington, D.C.’s streets last night. Many of whom had final orders for removal,” Leavitt said. “So these results are happening night after night because of the efforts of this federal task force that are working alongside the Metropolitan Police Department who agree with this effort.”
Charges against the 45 individuals included assault of a police officer, fugitive apprehensions, the possession of child sex abuse material and illegal firearms, along with drug trafficking and an assault on an officer with a Subway sandwich, FBI Director Kash Patel said on X. Three illegal firearms were also seized.
Leavitt also cited a poll in the Washington Post in May, which said 65% of residents in the nation's capital think crime is an "extremely" or "very serious" problem.
“In fact, the Metropolitan Police Department Union stated that President Trump is right to do this, that crime has been totally out of control in the city and the residents of Washington, maybe not the journalists, because they don’t want to admit President Trump is right who live here, but the residents agree according to a Washington Post poll that 65% of D.C. residents say that crime is a very serious problem in the District of Columbia,” Leavitt said.
Border czar Tom Homan said on Wednesday that ICE is working with law enforcement in D.C. to turn around its status as a sanctuary city.
It was the third night since Trump decided to federalize D.C.
There were 23 arrests on the first night and 43 on the second. The charges for those arrests included homicide, firearm offenses, lewd acts, stalking, and possession of a high-capacity magazine.
The media has attempted to portray violent crime as being at a low point in D.C. to insinuate that Trump is acting like a dictator by exerting federal jurisdiction over the district, but then allegations broke earlier this week that accused police higher-ups of manipulating crime data to make violent crime numbers seem lower.
While police statistics seemed to show that violent crime was down 26% in 2025, FBI data only shows a 10% drop.
And even the FBI numbers may be skewed, since union bosses have said that the rank and file were pressured to classify violent crimes as felony assault, which is not recognized as violent crime by the bureau.
Police union President Greggory Pemberton said he agreed with Trump's takeover.
"They are using statistics in a way that makes it appear that crime is down in D.C., but our rank and file know" that it isn't, he told Fox Business.
President Donald Trump’s federalization of law enforcement in Washington, D.C. hasn’t been met with support by all, but it has gotten the backing of law enforcement.
Trump announced earlier this week that Attorney General Pam Bondi would be given jurisdiction over the police in the D.C. metropolitan area, much to the chagrin of those on the left, as WJLA reported.
However, the D.C. Police Union came out to support the move, seeming to indicate that those who know law enforcement best, believe this was a good decision.
According to sources from inside the D.C. government, Trump met with Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) police officers before the takeover.
The inside sources at MPD believe this is a positive thing for the crime-ridden national capital because it will ultimately allow for more officers to patrol the district.
Some officers said they believe they need help, regardless of data released from both sides of the political spectrum, which many believe to be partisan.
The D.C. Police Union official said that the MPD began 2025 with a staff of less than 3,200 officers, making it the lowest census in 50 years.
Those staffing shortages have caused the officers who are on duty to work excessive overtime, with nearly 2 million hours of overtime logged last year.
“We stand with the President in recognizing that Washington, D.C., cannot continue on this trajectory,” union Chair Gregg Pemberton said in a statement about the temporary takeover. “Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.”
“The federal intervention is a critical stopgap, but the MPD needs proper staffing and support to thrive,” he added.
Pemberton voiced concern about D.C. City Council members driving away “our best officers and hinder(ing) recruitment” following the passage of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act of 2020.
BOOM 💥
Judge Jeannine charged this guy who threw a foot long Subway sandwich at federal officers with assault on a Police Officer, "we're gonna back the Police to the hilt., stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else"
Hit that like button if you appreciate our US Atty in DC pic.twitter.com/7X5n9xsdK6
— @Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) August 13, 2025
Recent estimates indicate that the MPD force could be as many as 500 officers short of their allotted staffing levels, causing a crisis in officer depletion.
However, critics of Trump’s decision have pointed to crime rates, saying that the president’s decision could cause more problems in the future.
The longtime enemy of President Donald Trump and even longer career politician, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) suffered a reputational blow this week.
As it turns out, Schiff, who previously reported to work in the House of Representatives, may well have been trading in information, not to the benefit of the American people, according to Fox News.
A Democrat whistleblower told agents at the FBI that Schiff authorized a classified information leak related to the Russia collusion story.
The story was part of the investigation into Trump and Russia, and sometime in 2017, Schiff allegedly signed off on the leak to discredit Trump, according to newly released documents.
According to an FBI 302 interview report, the whistleblower was a state intelligence staffer, affiliated with Democrats, who described himself as a friend to Schiff, and former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (CA), a Trump-aligned Republican.
The staffer said he believed the leak to be "unethical," "illegal," and “treasonous,” but said that he was assured there was nothing to worry about because Schiff thought the Constitution protected him from repercussions.
Kash Patel confirmed on Monday that he had handed over the documents to Congress, which were obtained and recently reviewed by reporters.
“We found it. We declassified it,” Patel said. “Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives – and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people.”
Officials have stated that the Department of Justice (DOJ) wasn’t interested in pursuing Schiff when the allegations were brought in several years ago.
The department allegedly cited the same argument made by Schiff, that he would be shielded by the Constitution’s speech and debate clause.
.@AdamSchiff never misses a camera to spew his tired leftist talking points, gaslighting Americans with the same old script.
His desperation is palpable—likely because he knows they're closing in.
Orchestrating the Russia hoax and doubling down with nauseating vitriol,… pic.twitter.com/OJkrYN7Jix
— Erica 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@EricaRN4USA) April 23, 2025
The whistleblower spoke to the FBI most recently in 2023, and told agents at a field office that he was personally in a meeting with Schiff when the leak of classified information was authorized.
"When working in this capacity, [redacted staffer's name] was called to an all-staff meeting by SCHIFF," the interview report said.
"In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to [the] President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP.”
More than 100,o00 Americans have applied for 10,000 positions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the agency put out a call for hiring late last month, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
ICE removed certain restrictions on who can be an ICE agent as well as offering incentives to those hired, including options like a signing bonus of up to $50,000 and student loan forgiveness.
Only two weeks after beginning the recruitment effort, more than 100,000 applications have been received.
"Our country is calling you to serve at ICE. In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies, your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News Digital in a statement. "This is a defining moment in our nation’s history. Your skills, your experience, and your courage have never been more essential. Together, we must defend the homeland."
Applicants must pass medical screening, drug screening, and a physical fitness test to be hired, the agency said.
In addition to field agent positions as deportation officers and criminal investigators, ICE is seeking some general attorneys, positions that may carry lower risks than field agent positions.
The ICE website describes the danger of these jobs as follows:
ICE law enforcement officers should expect a certain level of risk when performing their duties; however, they are expertly trained and every precaution is taken by ICE when it comes to protecting its officers' well-being.
The number of assaults on ICE agents has spiked 1000%, or more than 10 times what it was, due to recent immigration protests across the country.
Republicans in Congress recently allocated $30 billion in funding to hire the new agents; that works out to $300,000 per agent in salary, training costs, benefits, and other costs.
Time Magazine cautioned that it could take a significant amount of time to hire, train, relocate, and deploy that number of new agents, however.
"You’re talking three years before you see a significant increase of ICE agents on the street, which is the end of the administration,” predicted Obama-era ICE Director John Sandweg.
The hirings will be necessary to keep pace with a Trump goal to deport 3,000 illegal immigrants per day and 1 million in his first year in office.
Internal ICE data reported by NBC News suggested that deportations are far below those numbers, at about 15 to 17,000 per month in June and July.
Dean Cain, who played Superman in a previous TV series, signed up as an honorary ICE agent to support hte effort.
President Donald Trump announced during a Monday conference at the White House that his administration will take steps to combat violent crime in the District of Columbia, including deploying the National Guard and federalizing police in the district that houses the nation's capital.
"This is Liberation Day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back," Trump said about the plans.
The White House increased the police presence in D.C. recently following the brutal attack of Edward Coristine, a key figure at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), during an attempted carjacking last week.
Trump criticized the amount of violent crime and homelessness in the city and vowed to clean it up.
NBC News was quick to point out that violent crime is down 26% in D.C. compared to last year, but Trump shared statistics that compared it unfavorably to other major cities in the U.S. and around the world.
He mentioned several high-profile incidents by name, including the Coristine attack and the killing of a congressional intern.
Trump also said he would get rid of the "slums" of D.C., and called on the Republicans in Congress to "change no cash bail" to prevent many criminals from being put back on the street after being arrested.
"The radical left City Council adopted no cash bail," he said, reffering to Washington, D.C. "By the way, every place in the country you have no cash bail — it's a disaster."
"Somebody murders somebody, and they're out on no cash bail before the day is out," Trump said.
"We're going to end that in Chicago," he continued. "We're going to change the statute. I spoke with Pam and Todd and everybody. We're going to change the statute, and I'm going to have to get the Republicans to vote, because the Democrats are weak on crime — totally weak on crime."
Trump was joined at the press conference by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and other officials.
He said that the city looked "disgusting" and "ugly," which he also wanted to change. "We’re also talking about beautification. We’re the most beautiful, potentially, capital in the world," he said.
It makes sense that Trump would want to fix up the city where he now lives. He tends to want to leave things better than he found them, both in his real estate empire and the country as a whole.
Democrats will be crying about whether it's legal to use the National Guard in this way and to federalize law enforcement, but they are heavily invested in things staying the same despite many promises over decades to make them better. If Trump actually does improve things, it might shake up their voter base so radically that it will never be the same again.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo bashed socialist Zohran Mamdani by calling on him to evict himself from his rent-stabilized apartment.
Mamdani, the rising star of the far left who wants to be New York City's next mayor, is paying $2,300 a month thanks to rent-stabilization measures. This is despite the fact that Mamdani and his family are incredibly wealthy.
In a post to X, Cuomo lit Mamdani up by saying, "Somewhere last night in New York City, a single mother and her children slept at a homeless shelter because you, assemblyman [Zohran Mamdani], are occupying her rent-controlled apartment."
Cuomo is taking on Mamdani in New York City's mayoral race despite losing the primary to Mamdani. To do this, Cuomo opted to run his campaign as an independent and bank on uniting both center-left and center-right voters to form a coalition against socialist ideas.
Whatever the issues that voters may have with Cuomo and his checkered past, it's undeniable that Mamdani's occupation of rent-controlled housing is a blatant abuse of programs designed to help poor New Yorkers obtain apartments.
Mamdani has set himself up as a champion of the working class despite being incredibly wealthy with a six-figure income and international property ownership.
Furthermore, Mamdani is abusing housing programs to pay cheaper rent despite being more than capable of paying the market rate for housing in the Big Apple. It's a classic case of a wealthy elitist posing as a working-class champion while enjoying incredible wealth and privilege.
Cuomo didn't mince words in his X post saying, "No matter which way you cut it: Zohran Mamdani is a rich person. You are actually very rich. Yet you and your wife pay $2,300 a month, as you have bragged, for a nice apartment in Astoria. That should be housing for someone who needs it."
This means that Mamdani is paying nearly a thousand dollars under the median rent in New York City, which reached $3,397. That number has been steadily climbing and shot up by nearly $200 since 2024, thanks to steadily climbing demand and shrinking supply.
Cuomo finished his post by challenging Mamdani to "move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family who need it. Leaders must show moral clarity. Time to move out."
It is a blatant abuse of the system that someone as wealthy as Mamdani is occupying housing meant for low-income New Yorkers. While many of Mamdani's ideas have resonated with voters, it is likely that Cuomo's exposure of Mamdani will greatly anger New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet.
Unfortunately for Democrats, the campaign to evict Mamdani, both from politics and his rent-controlled apartment, will likely fail. Mamdani implementing his disastrous socialist policies in one of America's biggest cities would undoubtedly damage Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.
Even with Cuomo's questionable past, having him as New York City's next mayor would avoid rocking the boat, and it would be business as usual in a leftist stronghold.
However, Mamdani could cause disaster after disaster that would be broadcasted to the nation ahead of the midterm elections and used to galvanize centrist voters into supporting the GOP to avoid more Mamdani's from ascending to power.
However, it seems unlikely that Mamdani can be stopped, so Democrats are going to have to deal with the disastrous optics when his socialist vision inevitably begins to crumble.
New York Attorney General Letitia James' office and her attorney have ascended to new levels of irony after complaining about the "weaponization" of the justice system after the DOJ announced a probe against her.
After leading a blatantly political indictment against President Donald Trump for years, James and her office have the audacity to complain that the Trump DOJ is being "weaponized" to punish a political opponent of the White House.
James and the Biden DOJ pursued criminal investigations against Trump relentlessly for years, and now the shoe is on the other foot, and they aren't happy with the rules that they created.
James is currently facing a probe from the DOJ regarding her political prosecution of President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association, which is a moment that conservatives have been waiting on for years.
James is just one of several high-profile leftist prosecutors who attempted to interfere with the 2024 presidential election with political indictments, and justice is finally here for James and her cohorts.
After four years of persecuting Trump, James and her Democrat friends are now on the wrong side of the law. After years of political indictments, Trump has all the room to direct the DOJ to investigate his opponents for any supposed crimes.
Abbe Lowell, James's attorney, issued a statement claiming, "[It is] the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president's political retribution campaign. Weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration."
The irony of this statement isn't lost on the Trump administration or Trump's conservative supporters, who aren't shedding tears at the thought of Democrats reaping what they sowed for all those years.
Furthermore, there are legitimate merits to the probe against James as the DOJ is investigating if the Democrat attorney general's office may have violated constitutional protections under the "color of law," a legal term that describes abuses of power by government officials.
The prospective case is probing whether James deprived Trump, his business empire, and the NRA of their legal rights in her blatantly political investigation that was designed to damage Trump's presidential campaign.
James is well and truly in trouble, and this is only the beginning. Trump is in office for another three and a half years and has all the leeway to exact his retribution without damaging his support, thanks to the vicious and reckless behavior of Democrats that changed the rules of the game.
James doesn't just have to worry about the DOJ probing her office for allegations of political persecution; she is also facing allegations of mortgage fraud alongside Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), another notorious Trump hater.
Schiff is accused of lying about his primary residence for tax and mortgage purposes, and after how viciously he pursued Trump, the White House will not be showing mercy should it be found that Schiff was committing fraud.
As for James, if she was found guilty of fraud, it would be sweet revenge for Trump, who was accused of inflating his real estate portfolio by James.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum ordering colleges and universities that receive federal funding to submit admissions data to the federal government to prove that they are no longer using affirmative action in their methods of admitting students.
The Supreme Court's 2023 Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. V. Harvard decision said that the use of affirmative action in college admission decisions is unconstitutional, but that ruling doesn't have any teeth unless there is a way to enforce it.
The vast majority of higher learning institutions in the U.S. are heavily invested in affirmative action and other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, and are not likely to just give them up because the Trump-dominated court says so.
The order also expands the amount of information institutions will have to submit, as overseen by Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. McMahon will also need to conduct more accuracy checks on the information submitted and take action if the accuracy doesn't meet federal standards.
In short, schools that get caught continuing to use affirmative action will probably lose at least some, or maybe all, of their federal funding.
Some schools have been hard at work trying to figure out how to still race as a criterion in their admissions process without it being affirmative action.
Harvard has implemented an essay prompt that allows students to detail how race has affected their lives, while UCLA has practically boasted about its plans to increase diversity in spite of the ruling.
McMahon will be looking most closely at these schools, one would think, but they can't be the only ones trying to keep doing what they've been doing, no matter what the courts say about it.
Since the ruling, some schools have seen an increase in Asian enrollment and a decrease in Black students making the cut.
This is what would be expected without any use of affirmative action. Looking at grades and achievement alone, the Asian population would score higher and would displace some of the Black applicants and others who were given an advantage over them.
It's understandable that things wouldn't be exactly even among all racial and ethnic groups and that colleges would be concerned about "fairness."
But race should not be the only criterion for fairness, there are so many others to consider, including ability, hard work, and more. It's not fair to have worked harder and achieved more, but be denied admission to a school in favor of someone who has not worked as hard or achieved as much.
Sixty-plus years of affirmative action--which is three generations--has not achieved perfect equality, because sometimes the effect of affirmative action is to further weaken the group being "helped."
The left doesn't consider that because affirmative action lets them act as Santa Claus to some voters, which they feel will come back to them in loyalty. But that's not fair, either.
Minnesota residents saw a huge win on the topic of Second Amendment rights this week, following a ruling by the state supreme court about serial numbers on firearms.
The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Aug. 6 that state law does not preclude residents from carrying a “ghost gun,” which doesn’t have a serial number, as Minnesota's KSTP reported.
The case came before the court due to a legal issue that began in 2022 with a state patrol trooper’s response to a car crash when the firearm was found.
During the course of the state trooper's response to an accident that included a rollover crash in Fridley, Minnesota, the driver told the officer about the firearm.
He also told the law enforcement official that he didn’t have a permit to carry that gun. The trooper found it and discovered it was a so-called “ghost gun” without a serial number.
Thanks to that discovery, the man was charged with felony possession of a firearm without a serial number, as well as carrying a handgun without a permit.
In response to those charges, the man’s defense team moved to dismiss the serial number charge, saying there was no probable cause.
The firearm owner had to defend himself from a Minnesota statute that was put on the books more than 30 years ago in 1994, which made it criminal to receive or possess a firearm that is "not identified by a serial number."
The state’s high court, however, decided that the 1994 statute is but a refrence to the federal law, and that the state of Minnesota doesn’t have an independent system to require the serial numbers.
Judge Paul Thissen penned the majority opinion, in which he asserted that the state statute doesn’t clearly define enough about what a serial number references.
According to the Thissen-authored opinion, the possession of a firearm that is not identified by a serial number is illegal "only if federal law requires that the firearm have a serial number."
While the court ruled in favor of the gun owner, this doesn’t mean the justices are in favor of guns without serial numbers.
In fact, Thissen wrote that the guns "pose real dangers to public safety and the proper regulation of such weapons is an important policy issue. Many states have regulated ghost guns through the legislative process, yet Minnesota has not acted."
“Ghost guns” are generally firearms that are assembled from parts put together by those other than the manufacturer, and since they don’t have serial numbers, are much more difficult for law enforcement to track.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said that between the years 2016 and 2021, they suspect that over 45,000 suspected ghost guns were recovered from crime scenes nationwide.
President Donald Trump is again calling for the federalization of Washington D.C., after a member of the Department of Government Accountability (DOGE) was badly beaten.
The staffer, Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls,” by those inside the D.C. beltway, was the victim of the attack, which has again reignited discussion about the possible takeover, as Fox News reported.
Trump’s push is backed by a number of Republicans, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who has been calling for federalization for some time, saying the town should come under Congressional control.
Lee has even introduced the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act, named after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, in light of recent crime.
The bill, which was introduced with a companion bill by Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has yet to make it out of Committee, despite some moderate support.
"The Constitution already federalizes D.C.," Lee said on X. "We just need Congress to do its job — and reassert its lawmaking power over our nation’s capital city. My bill, the BOWSER Act, would do that."
The president took to Truth Social on Aug 5 to talk about his frustration with the city that he now calls home, saying, “Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control.
“Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released.”
According to Trump, the lawbreakers aren’t afraid of law enforcement “because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now!”
Trump said that the D.C. laws needed to be changed to prosecute those carrying out the violent crimes as adults, regardless of whether they are legally minors, all the way down to the age of 14.
In his post, the president spoke about the recent victim who was “ beaten mercilessly by local thugs,” and he said that Washington, D.C., must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans.”
Trump also said he believes it’s important for the world to see a Washington, D.C. that is a reflection of the nation, which he believes could be accomplished via federal control.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.
He voiced his regret saying maybe if that step had already been taken, “this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime.”