Law and order for thee, not for me

Trump cheers on crime, we do the time

The news that New York Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on federal charges popped up on my phone just as I was finishing this piece. The timing felt notable since I was writing about law and order, crime and punishment, incitement and mitigation…and now this. It got me thinking further about the complex relationship our political leaders have with the law, both as those who pass, enforce, and interpret laws—and as those who sometimes violate or subvert them. 

Speaking of laws, the FBI released annual crime data for 2023 earlier this week. The numbers are very encouraging. Overall, violent crime dropped in the U.S. by an estimated 3%, and property crime decreased by an estimated 2.4% over 2022. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12%—the largest year-to-year decline in decades—and reports of rape fell by more than 9%. Even hate crimes decreased slightly, by just under 1%.

This is great news for America, and welcome news for the Harris campaign as well, as it obliterates Donald Trump’s claims on the trail that crime is “through the roof” under the Biden/Harris administration. Yet sadly, as is often the case with Trump’s exaggerations, misinformation, and outright lies, they have a way of sticking in the minds of voters. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in August showed that Trump, the convicted felon, and Harris, the former prosecutor, are running neck-and-neck on the crime issue. Strange, isn’t it? 

It looks like we have to take another trip down memory lane to the Trump era to remind voters exactly why we don’t want to go back. Trump has had an authoritarian attitude toward crime since way back—he famously called for the execution of the falsely accused Central Park Five more than 30 years ago, and more recently he has called for the death penalty for drug dealers. But that hasn’t stopped him from dabbling in the dark arts himself, being a target of numerous investigations for fraud, discrimination, and financial shenanigans. His presidency was no different. Call it law and order for thee, but not for me.

Surprisingly, Trump did have one bipartisan accomplishment on crime. Championed by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the First Step Act, an expansive criminal justice reform bill, passed in 2018. Trump had two personal interests in it: to court the Black vote (and impress Kim Kardashian) ahead of the 2020 election and to spite his rival, Joe Biden, who sponsored the 1994 federal crime bill that dramatically lowered the U.S. crime rate. But his interest in prison reform was short-lived. He later called it “woke shit” and refused to run on it. He has since returned to old form, promising to militarize police, reincarcerate thousands, and expand the death penalty in a second term.

Trump’s record on crime was abysmal. In the last year of his administration, the violent crime rate rose to 385.2 per 100,000 people. The murder rate in particular spiked. How bad was it? The number of murders increased by 5,795 from 2019 to 2020, tripling the previous record. In the preceding 59 years, the number of murders had never increased by more than 2,000 in a year.

Naturally, you can’t discount the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the crime rate. Remember that 2020 was also a year of significant social unrest due to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The nation was ripe for chaos. No president knows what difficulties they will face during their term in office, and 2020 would have been a challenge for the best president. The problem was that Trump made both situations incalculably worse.

One of the final straws for me in making my decision to leave the White House in 2020 was the way Trump handled the pandemic. Much can be written about this—how he denied and downplayed it, publicly recommended “cures” with minimal to no basis in science, and played favorites with who would get federal help. But he also ceded what little semblance of national leadership he had previously mustered by declaring war against our nation’s governors. Trump desperately wanted to reopen the economy, but in states where the number of cases was still worryingly high, some state leaders refused to drop their virus restrictions. Foreshadowing the Capitol riot less than a year later, Trump openly incited anti-lockdown protests, many of which turned violent. 

A couple of months later, he took the exact opposite approach, but with equally horrendous results.

When the Black Lives Matter protests began impacting nearly every major city, Trump saw an opportunity and jumped on it. His polls were tanking because of his unbelievably bad management of the pandemic. So he exploited what were largely peaceful protests at the outset, amped up the violence (Kyle Rittenhouse anyone?), and spewed “LAW AND ORDER!” rhetoric to make himself look like a hero. All very typical for Trump—create a problem so he could “solve” it and get adulation from the MAGA mob. He always reminded me of a firefighter with pyromania, setting fires just to get the glory after putting them out.

Let’s set the record straight. I was in the room when Trump crashed the weekly governors’ meeting led by my boss, Mike Pence. Trump praised Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's handling of the protests, which originated in his state. 

But on that very same day, he began orchestrating the violent response to peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square. There had already been White House discussions about using the Insurrection Act to deploy the military against the American people, and how a violent show of force could help secure his re-election. To Trump, this was exactly the “law and order” moment he needed to save his flagging campaign.

Here’s how it went down: Trump talked about shooting the protesters, but the team ultimately landed on having law enforcement violently clear the Square. His surprise appearance in front of St. John's Church holding a Bible was the brainchild of the aforementioned Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks. Trump would play up the false narrative that pesky Antifa was causing trouble again, and he put them down with strength. They all thought he’d then coast on sweet “law and order” momentum to an easy election win.

Oh, and all that “back the blue” talk from Trump? It’s nonsense. He only cares about law enforcement officers to the extent that they can be used as pawns in his political circus. That’s why he can’t summon an ounce of sympathy for the hundreds of law enforcement officers injured or killed while defending the Capitol and protecting federal lawmakers on Jan. 6, 2021. They weren’t playing the part he wanted them to. But on June 1, 2020, in Lafayette Square, they were. 

Park Police officers on scene to clear an area of the park to install anti-scale fencing reported being shocked as other law enforcement teams, at AG Bill Barr’s urging, began rapidly dispersing the crowd without warning, using tear gas, pepper balls, flash grenades, smoke canisters, rubber bullets, riot shields, and batons. It was one of the darkest days of the Trump presidency and, again, a clear sign of what was to come.

During the pandemic (and later on Jan. 6), Trump saluted law-breakers because they were on his side. Barely six weeks later, at the height of the BLM protests, he attempted to cast himself, inaccurately, as the nation’s “top law enforcement officer.” For Trump, law and order are just tools in his authoritarian toolbox to be wielded selectively, not in the interests of justice, but to serve whatever his needs are at the moment. 

What did Trump actually do to quell unrest in the country when it desperately needed steady, unifying leadership? Tear-gas his way to a church for a photo session with a Bible, send in unmarked federal troops geared up for battle, and tweet incendiary “wanted posters.” He was the President of the United States, and he stoked chaos and lawlessness. A real president works to de-escalate a bad situation, not inflame it. But division and turmoil give Trump power, and he knows it. A second term will bring more of the same. As a Republican, I may not agree with Kamala Harris on everything, but I trust her to respect and uphold the rule of law and provide the steady, unifying leadership we need when stuff hits the fan.

In recent years, there’s been a notable difference in how the parties address crime within their own ranks as well. The Democratic Party has taken steps to clean house, while the Republican Party tolerates, excuses, and lies about its problem members. Matt Gaetz is a prime example. He remains a member in good standing of the House Judiciary Committee despite the credible allegations against him. Trump and his allies fostered a culture of criminality in the White House that has pervaded our society and our politics, and that legacy persists in the GOP. No wonder the Clay Higginses and Mark Robinsons of the world know they’ll be welcome there. A party that accepts criminals will certainly accept racists and Nazis with a porn addiction. As for the Democrats, we’ll see how they respond to the serious charges against Eric Adams.

We didn’t even get to the unholy trinity of Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone…the pardons and commutations…the politicization of the DOJ…the 2020 election scheme and the Jan. 6 insurrection…or, for that matter, Trump’s own crimes. Stay tuned for more next week.

Until then,

Olivia