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In early March 2020, as Americans were starting to come to terms with the seriousness of the Covid threat, Donald Trump conceded to Fox News that he was struggling with a decision about bringing Americans who’d contracted the coronavirus abroad back to American soil. As the president put it at the time, he “hated to do it statistically,” adding that the question on his mind at the time was, “Is it going to look bad?”
The point of the Republican’s comments was striking, but unavoidable: Trump had certain talking points he wanted to use, and he didn’t want ailing American patients to mess up his messaging.
Soon after, during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control, the president was even less subtle on this point. As part of a discussion about a cruise ship with Americans on board, Trump told reporters, “I like the numbers being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship.”
When a reporter asked why he’d prioritize “attractive numbers” over treating Americans who were sick, Trump said that providing care was important — before quickly adding how much emphasis he placed on the tallies. “I like the numbers,” he added. “I would rather have the numbers stay where they are.”
These comments came to mind anew this week. The New York Times reported:
President Trump suggested on Monday that offenses that ‘take place in the home’ should not count against his record of crime reduction in Washington, saying his opponents are using reports of ‘a little fight with the wife’ to undermine his crackdown.
In the spring of 2020, Trump’s goal was to convince Americans that there was a vanishingly small number of Covid cases in the U.S. Five and a half years later, his new goal is to persuade Americans that crime in the nation’s capital has been completely eliminated, thanks to his decision to militarize the city.
“Washington, D.C., is a totally safe city. You are not reporting any crime because there is none,” the president told reporters last week. “They said crime is down 87%, then I said, ‘No it’s not. It’s down 100%.’” He pushed a similar line on Monday during remarks at the Museum of the Bible, insisting there’s “no crime” in D.C. thanks to his policies.
It was at this point when the president hedged a bit, acknowledging crimes that undermine his talking points, which can’t be prevented by police state tactics.
“Things that take place in the home they call crime,” he said. “They’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime scene, see? So now I can’t claim 100%.”
And since claiming 100% crime reduction is what apparently matters most, Trump expressed irritation about domestic violence interfering with his political boast.
To the extent that reality still has any meaning in the discussion about the underlying policy, it’s not just domestic violence that’s intruding on the White House’s talking points. The Times’ report added, “On Sunday alone, there was a homicide, six motor vehicle thefts, two assaults with a deadly weapon, four robberies and more than 30 thefts, according to police statistics.”
None of those crimes in Washington, D.C., had anything to do with “a man” having “a little fight with the wife.”
This post updates our related earlier coverage.