California Gov. Gavin Newsom tried his latest bit of political theater last week, lobbing a cheap shot at Donald Trump by claiming that if the president were truly serious about fighting crime, he’d send the National Guard to red states like Louisiana — where the homicide rate is higher than in California. Newsom’s smirk all but said it: Gotcha.
But it backfired. Badly.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wasted no time calling his bluff, answering with a crisp “Absolutely” when asked if the Trump administration would deploy Guard troops to Republican-run states. Her point was clear: Trump doesn’t shy away from confronting crime, no matter where it’s festering. “Every single city is evaluated for what we need to do there to make it safer,” she added.
And here’s the kicker for Newsom: even if troops were sent to those so-called “red” states, they wouldn’t be marching into GOP strongholds. They’d be deployed to Democrat-run cities — because that’s where the crime actually is.
The statistics tell the tale. Of America’s 20 cities with the highest homicide rates, 12 sit inside red states. But only one has a Republican mayor — and that’s Shreveport, Louisiana, which has barely seen GOP leadership for 11 of the past 152 years. The rest? Solid blue, for decades.
- Birmingham hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1971.
- St. Louis, 1949.
- Atlanta, 1879.
- New Orleans, 1872.
Generations of Democratic rule, generations of failed policy.
Look at Indianapolis. Before Democrats seized the mayor’s office in 2016, the city averaged 120 homicides a year. Today, that average has ballooned to over 200. Or consider Dallas, where Mayor Eric Johnson finally switched parties in 2023 after years of watching Democratic “leadership” crater public safety. His own words summed it up: “Our cities desperately need the genuine commitment to law and order and fiscal conservatism that has long been a defining characteristic of the GOP.”
The Heritage Foundation underscored this reality: your safety isn’t dictated by the color of your state on an electoral map. It’s dictated by whether your city leaders fund the police, back the prosecutors, and enforce the law. In too many Democrat-led cities, that’s not happening. Instead, soft-on-crime DAs push social justice experiments, police departments are hollowed out, and violent offenders get recycled back onto the streets under cashless bail.
So while Gavin Newsom snickers from Sacramento, the real story is plain: the blood on America’s sidewalks isn’t a product of Republican governance. It’s the consequence of Democratic neglect. Trump’s critics can try to spin, but the numbers don’t lie.
