ABC Anchor Admits Truth As Trump’s DC Crackdown Yields Big Results
President Donald J. Trump’s decision to federalize Washington, D.C.—a move that critics on the Left mocked and insiders in the bureaucracy tried to downplay—continues delivering hard results on a crisis that many media outlets spent years trying to gloss over. One of ABC News’ own anchors has now admitted as much on live television.
Kyra Phillips revealed on-air that she was “jumped” just two blocks from her D.C. studio “during the past two years,” underscoring a reality that residents and commuters have been warning about long before federal intervention began under Trump’s second-term crackdown.
Although the Metropolitan Police Department has reported declining violent crime totals since 2023, Phillips made it clear that statistics are not telling the full story—especially for those who work near ABC’s Washington bureau, where multiple incidents have unfolded, including two network employees reportedly victimized.
“We’ve been talking so much about the numbers and yeah, usually that’s how you play devil’s advocate, is you talk about, ‘Oh, well stats say crime is down.’ However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown D.C. where we work right here around our bureau just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot,” Phillips said. “One person died literally two blocks down here from the bureau.”
She added that “It was within the last two years that I actually was jumped walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning one of my coworkers said her car was stolen a block away from the bureau.”
“So we can talk about the numbers going down, but crime is happening every single day because we’re all experiencing it firsthand while working and living down here,” Phillips continued.
Despite official claims that violent crime in Washington is down 26% compared to 2024, the MPD crime dashboard still shows 99 homicides so far in 2025—evidence that serious violence continues to test the city’s safety.
Meanwhile, one of MPD’s own leaders, Commander Michael Pulliam, is under investigation on allegations of manipulating crime data, according to NBC4 Washington’s July reporting. Pulliam has been suspended and denies the accusations, but the probe has intensified skepticism toward the city’s crime statistics.
Federal agencies, empowered by Trump’s security directive, have embedded with local officers to conduct arrests, raids, and warrant operations. CNN noted the increased presence of unmarked federal vehicles patrolling the city.
Immigration enforcement, in particular, has surged. Roughly 300 individuals lacking legal immigration status have been arrested in recent weeks—over ten times the normal ICE activity for the District.
Officials told CNN that ICE agents have been accompanying MPD officers and stepping in whenever detentions reveal unlawful presence.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson criticized media outlets attempting to downplay the success of Trump’s strategy.
“The drops in crime are not ‘moderate,’ they are life-changing for the countless of DC residents and visitors who have not been murdered, robbed, carjacked, or victims of overall violent crime in the last week,” Jackson said. “The priority of this operation remains getting violent criminals off the streets — regardless of immigration status.”
Local leadership has been forced to follow suit. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently imposed a four-night, citywide juvenile curfew after a rash of youth-related violence left the city scrambling for control.
At the same time, National Guard units deployed under Trump’s federalization order are preparing for a long-term stay—possibly well into summer 2026.
Emails filed in a new court document show that Trump’s interim commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, General Leland Blanchard, instructed officers to “plan and prepare for a long-term persistent presence.” In a message dated September 17, 2025, Blanchard told other state generals that he had ordered current Guard units to “work quickly toward ‘wintering’ our formation,” signaling months of continued deployment.
Although the current authorization runs through November 30, 2025, Blanchard noted that the mission could extend through “America 250,” the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration next summer.
National Guard members are not allowed to conduct arrests, but the Trump administration credits their visible presence—and the coordination between federal and local agencies—with helping drive crime down and restoring order.
Since the operation began on August 11, more than 2,000 arrests have been logged citywide. Roughly 1,500 came from MPD, with the rest executed by federal partners including ICE, CBP, the FBI, DEA, and ATF.
With crime still claiming victims near major media studios—and even network anchors acknowledging it—the results of Trump’s federalization effort are becoming hard for the press to ignore.