* President Donald Trump yesterday…

This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of [Washington, DC’s] local leadership. The radical left city council adopted no cash bail. By the way, every place in the country where you have no cash bail is a disaster. That’s what started the problem in New York and they don’t change it, they don’t want to change it. That’s what started it in Chicago. I mean, bad politicians started it, bad leadership started it. But that was the one thing that’s central, no cash bail. Somebody murders somebody and they’re out on no cash bail before the day is out.

We’re going to end that in Chicago, 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. They don’t know why. They want it to stop because they get mugged, too. But we’re going to change no cash bail. We’re going to change the statute and get rid of some of the other things and we’ll count on the Republicans in Congress and Senate to vote. We have the majority so we’ll vote. We don’t have a big majority, but we’ve gotten everything including the great Big Beautiful Bill. Got that done and that’s one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to people in this country. They’re starting to figure it out, how good it is. Biggest tax cut in history, so many things.

But we’ll be able to get that done. So Todd, if you and Pam can draw up things working with the people, I’ll get it passed. We’ll get it passed with the Republicans. Think of this, probably won’t get one Democrat vote because they have no idea what they’re doing. That’s why they want men playing in women’s sports, that’s why they want transgender for everybody. Everybody, transgender. And they just got walloped in an election, in a landslide and they haven’t changed one thing. I saw the other day, the certain gentleman who is a very well-known politician, Democrat, was fighting like hell that men should be allowed to play in women’s sport. They just don’t get it. They said it’s an 80/20 issue and I think it’s a 97 to three issue, and I don’t know who the three are. I’ve never heard anybody come. Nobody’s ever come up to me, “Sir, you have to let men play in women’s sports. You have to do it, sir.” Nobody’s ever approached me, I don’t know where this issue even comes from. Never seen anything like it. But they turned our nation’s capital into a sanctuary jurisdiction. That’s the other thing, we have to get rid of sanctuary cities as quickly as possible. We’re going to do it, too. We have to, because it’s sanctuary for criminals. Releasing illegal alien gang members onto the streets. In 2022, nearly 70% of criminals arrested in Washington went un-prosecuted. That’s not going to happen with the group we have standing aside and standing behind me. And at the Metropolitan Police Department, it’s now reached a small number relatively compared to what it was, but it’s thousands of people. We have thousands of police. I was told today, “Sir, they want more police.” I heard a number, 3,500 police.

That’s a lot of police, 3,500. I thought they’re going to say, “We only have 30 policemen or women.” He said, “We have 3,500. We need more.” You don’t need more, that’s so many. I’d never heard… That’s like an army. How could you need more than 3,000? It just happened two minutes ago. “Sir, they’ve requested more police.” “Oh, what do they have?” “About 3,500.” I said, “3,500?” This is not a big area, it’s ridiculous. What you need is rules and regulations and you need the right people to implement them. And we have the right people here, that I can tell you. Look at the border. Biden said there’s nothing you can do. Kamala was the border czar, she never called one of the border patrol agents, who are great. ICE is great. Never spoke to anybody, never went there. But she was the border czar and everybody said it was impossible to fix.

I fixed it in three months. No, really, I fixed it the first week, but really fixed it over the last couple of months. And I mean literally to a point where, as I said, zero illegals entering our country in the last 90 days. Pretty amazing. It’s time for dramatic action. We’re going to do the same thing over here. It’s going to be a very safe city very soon. We’re not looking to just take years because a lot of people die in years, and we’ve got incredible people in this country, except we have to allow them to do their job. And that, we will deliver like nobody’s ever delivered before. I actually think it’s easy. If you’re competent, it’s easy. If you’re incompetent, it’s impossible. But I’m very competent. […]

Again, cashless bail, watch what we do with that. Today, we’re formally declaring a public safety emergency. This is an emergency. This is a tragic emergency and it’s embarrassing for me to be up here. I’m going to see Putin, I’m going to Russia on Friday. I don’t like being up here, talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was with graffiti all over the walls. It’s another part of it, by the way. Because we’re talking about safety, but we’re also talking about beautification. We are the most beautiful, potentially, capital in the world. We always had. But people come from Iowa, they come from Indiana, they come and then they get mugged. Not going to happen.

Keep coming because by the time you get your trip set, it’s going to be safe again and it’s going to be clean very quickly. We’re going to replace the medians that are falling down all over the roads, we’re going to replace the potholes. We’re going to put a nice new coat of asphalt over the top, knowing we don’t have to rip the road out and spend seven years building a new road because they cut everything. Because some designers said, “Well, we need a quarter of an inch more turn for safety reasons.” No, we’re going to do it right, we’re going to get it done quickly. So today, we’re declaring public safety emergency in the District of Columbia. And Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who’s fantastic, is taking command of the Metropolitan Police Department as of this moment. […]

We’re going to have a tremendous success on what we’re doing. Other cities are hopefully watching this, they’re all watching just like everyone’s watching here, they’re all watching and maybe they’ll self-clean up and maybe they’ll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem. I mean if you go back, this whole thing with cashless bail is a disaster. So many problems came that we never had before. So they’re watching us today, and if they don’t learn their lesson, if they haven’t studied us properly… Because we’re going to be very successful, I have zero doubt about that. It’s a question of will it be really fast?

Like the border, and everyone said, they used to say, Biden used to say, I need legislation. I didn’t get any legislation. I called up our people and we did a great job. Tom Homan was great. As you know, our Secretary did a great job. They did a great job. There’s no games. They didn’t play games. And we’re going to have the same thing here. But then I’m going to look at New York in a little while. Let’s do this. Let’s do this together. Let’s see. It’s going to go pretty quickly. And if we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster, we have a mayor there who’s totally incompetent. He’s an incompetent man and we have an incompetent governor there. Pritzker is an incompetent. His family threw him out of the business and he ran for governor. Now I understand he wants to be president. But I noticed he lost a little weight, so maybe he has a chance. You never know what happens. But Pritzker is a gross, incompetent guy, thrown out of the family business. […]

But when I look at Chicago and I look at L.A., if we didn’t go to L.A. three months ago, L.A. would be burning, like the part that didn’t burn. If he would’ve allowed the water to come down, which I told him about in my first term, I said, ‘You’re going to have problems, let it come down.’ We actually sent in our military to have the water come down into L.A. They still didn’t want it to come down after the fires. But that was it, we have it coming down. But hopefully L.A. is watching. That mayor also, the city’s burning, they lost like 25,000 homes, I went there the day after the fire, you were there, and I saw people standing in front of a burned down home. Their homes were incinerated. Even the steel was literally, it was all warped and literally disintegrated because of the winds and the flame, like a blowtorch.

* React from two strong supporters of ending cash bail. First up, Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago)…

State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. — the lead sponsor of the SAFE-T Act —released the following statement after the president falsely attacked Illinois’ nation-leading measure to end cash bail:

“The president’s misguided attacks on Illinois’ elimination of cash bail are par for the course. When he doesn’t want to answer for his administration’s mounting failures, he reverts to his usual playbook: distraction, denial and diversion.

Illinois is seeing positive results. According to the Illinois State Police, both violent and property crimes have decreased since the end of cash bail. The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice also found no statistically significant link between bail reform and crime rates in its analysis of 33 cities, both with and without such reforms.

The SAFE-T Act and the Pretrial Fairness Act made Illinois the first state to fully eliminate the use of money to decide who stays in jail and who walks free before trial. This system is based on risk—not riches. Judges now consider actual threats to public safety and the likelihood of flight, not the size of someone’s bank account.

Let’s be clear: under the new system, no one charged with a serious violent crime—like murder—can simply walk free. That was the case under the cash bail system, where those with money could buy their freedom, regardless of the danger they posed to the public. There are countless examples of violent offenders paying bail and walking free under the old model—something the president conveniently ignores.

What the president wants is a justice system that favors the wealthy. That’s exactly the kind of system that has long failed our communities and allowed the rich to evade consequences. It’s no surprise from someone who also wants to criminalize poverty and homelessness.

In Illinois, we reject that approach. We believe public safety should not be sold to the highest bidder. The SAFE-T Act represents true criminal justice reform—one based on accountability and evidence, not personal wealth.

I urge the president to read the law before spreading dangerous and false narratives.”

* Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago)…

In recent public remarks, the federal administration threatened to change statutes on cash bail in Illinois and Washington, D.C., accusing the SAFE-T Act and the end of cash bail of increasing crime rates in Chicago. To set the record straight on both the law and the facts, State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago) released the following statement:

“Once again, the federal administration is spreading dangerous misinformation – this time falsely claiming the end of cash bail in Illinois has led to rising crime rates across the state, particularly in Chicago, and that murderers are being released the same day they commit a crime. This could not be further from the truth.

“Not only are these claims blatantly wrong, they are intentionally misleading in order to spread fear. The truth is very simple: Illinois now prioritizes public safety over wealth. Under our state’s criminal justice system reform, individuals are detained or released based on whether they pose a risk to the community or are likely to flee – not on whether they can afford to foot the bill. That means someone with money doesn’t get a free pass, and someone without it isn’t jailed simply because they’re poor.

“No one accused of a serious crime – like murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, sex offenses, domestic violence or other non-probationable, felony crimes – is eligible for automatic release. Our judges can and do order pretrial detention when the facts warrant it.

“Crime is a complex issue, but stoking fear with false narratives doesn’t help. In fact, we’re in a historic period, with violent and property crimes down nationwide. The real threat to hardworking Illinois families isn’t smarter bail policies – it’s legislation like the Washington-backed budget bill, which would strip health care from hundreds of thousands, hike grocery prices and cut jobs in key industries like construction and manufacturing.

“Americans deserve honest leadership, not scare tactics. The cash bail system is flawed, and Illinois will not go back to using it against our residents. We’re committed to staying focused on facts, fairness and building safer communities for everyone – not just the people who can afford it.”

Discuss.