By Suzanne Bowdey

Some people might question the wisdom of putting Donald Trump on the campaign trail with his dubious approval ratings, but it’s proving to be one of the smartest moves Republicans have made. The president may not be on the ballot, but his ability to accomplish his agenda over the next two years is — and putting Trump in front of voters helps remind America of that. It’s also a rare chance to cut through the media’s criticism and highlight where the administration has delivered — i.e. the progress we stand to lose if Democrats retake control. And the crackdown on crime should be at the top of the list.

After all those months of hysteria over the National Guard’s deployment to out-of-control cities, Americans have taken it for granted that public safety has undergone a shocking revival. Sure, there are still dangerous hot spots — largely in blue states where leftists refuse to accept help or implement any meaningful reforms — but it shouldn’t be lost on voters that we’re experiencing the lowest violent crime rate in 100 years.

And yet, as The Washington Times points out, the president never seems to get any credit for this. If anything, Jeff Mordock laments, he’s “a victim of his own success when it comes to crime. In fact, the administration’s efforts have been so successful that the topic has “fade[d] from the national conversation,” replaced by complaints about affordability and the Iran war. It’s unfair when you consider the miraculous turnaround our nation is experiencing on what were once sky-high rates of murder, human trafficking, robberies, carjackings, rapes, and more.

According to the FBI, these past 20 months of Trump have yielded incredible gains compared to Joe Biden’s last year in office.

  • “The homicide rate has dropped roughly 16%, to 4.1 per 100,000 people from 4.9 per 100,000.
  • “Violent crime arrests are up 90% to 53,969, compared with 28,405.
  • “Law enforcement officers seized 7,183 pounds of fentanyl, an 8% increase from 6,651 pounds.
  • “They located and identified 11,081 child victims, a 21% increase.
  • “Lawmen arrested 5,072 child predators and human traffickers, a 13% increase.
  • “They arrested 4,260 members of foreign terrorist organizations, a 38% increase.
  • “They stopped 1,038 people from carrying out a terrorist attack.
  • “All 10 people on the FBI’s Most Wanted list on the day Mr. Trump took office were captured.”

Now, what was once a front-burner issue for Americans has fallen somewhat off the radar. Even at the end of last year, Gallup found that 49% of people consider crime “an extremely or very serious problem,” down a whopping 14 points from two years ago (63%). That shift has almost certainly been credited to Republicans, who voters rightly trust much more with crime policy (43%) than Democrats (29%).

And yet, in this major clash of ideologies we call the midterm elections, the headlines would have us believe that Americans are ready to trade in the GOP majority for a Democratic Party that wants to abolish prisons, defund the police, and reopen the border so that criminals can stream back across unchecked. What madness.

Unlike other voter concerns, public safety touches everyone — but it should hold an especially significant place in the priorities of urban families, where crime is more prevalent. For years, they’ve paid the price for the indifferent attitudes of Democratic mayors and governors who let their cities burn as some sort of misguided protest to Trump. And as much as people may have disliked the optics of sending in the National Guard and law enforcement to clean up our communities, Politico points out, “history shows they dislike feeling unsafe even more. Expanding homeless encampments and drug overdoses in plain view have left many of them fearful.”

Last year, at the height of his Make America Safer Again push, CNN’s Harry Enten combed through the polling on crime “and declared that Trump is ‘like Air Jordan towering over [former President] Joe Biden’ on crime issues. While Biden was underwater on crime by 26 points in 2024, Trump had a plus-one favorability on the matter in August, just before his National Guard moves. ‘Americans are far more hawkish on crime than a lot of Democrats want to admit,’” Enten warned.

Jeff Werniak, deputy police chief in Posen, Illinois, told the Times that the Trump administration didn’t just stop at “street policing.” He’s leveraging the full force of the federal government to take on everything from the cartels and human traffickers to violent gangs and Islamist terrorists. “They’re actually going the extra mile to find [criminals],” he emphasized. “These guys are in hunting mode, and they’re in a preventive mode. They’re going and looking for crime. I would say maybe 99% of the crime reduction is because of the Trump administration.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who insists the polling predicting a Democratic blowout “is wrong,” maintains that this is one area where Republicans have a serious edge. As he travels to dozens of states, meeting with locals, he underscored that people don’t want Democratic Socialists reversing all of the gains Trump and the GOP have made to make their neighborhoods more secure. “They like what they’re seeing,” he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “They like safer streets. They like the fact that we have the lowest violent crime rate in 126 years. It makes their children and grandchildren safer, and they’re going to vote accordingly.”

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

This article originally appeared here.