Trump’s crime crackdown is also his midterm sales pitch

President Donald Trump framed his presidency around delivering the American people a booming economy at home and long-sought peace abroad.

But lately, as progress toward both those goals has begun to stall, he’s pivoted toward a third priority.

Trump is rapidly making crime a centerpiece of his political agenda, encouraged by polls showing voters perceive big-city crime as a major problem and his own belief that the issue has knocked Democrats off balance, White House aides and advisers said.

What began two weeks ago as a concentrated crackdown on Washington, DC, has morphed into a sprawling White House effort to project strength across the nation — and turn public safety into the kind of attention-consuming debate that Trump and his advisers hope will give Republicans an edge come next year’s midterms.

“I think that crime will be a big subject of the midterms and will be a big subject of the next election,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting this week. “And I think the Republicans are going to do really well.”

Crime is an issue that has animated the president since even before his first term. But Trump’s recent push represents a reshuffling of priorities as he approaches the latter stage of his all-important first year, and a return to a more visceral subject that he hopes will turn out his MAGA base in 2026.

It also underscores the growing concern within the party that the formula that propelled Trump and Republicans back into power may not be enough to keep them there. When he was sworn in for his second term, the president heralded a “golden age” free of foreign entanglements and full of economic prosperity. But eight months in, Trump is still struggling to end wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Voters remain anxious over rising costs and skeptical the administration’s actions are doing much to help.

And as Trump’s signature domestic policy law struggles to gain traction, officials seeking fresh ways to drive GOP enthusiasm have homed in on a hardline law-and-order appeal.

“The economy is something people feel, but the actual policies are not things they understand,” said one person close to the White House. “Whereas crime is something people experience and they feel — and they understand what policing looks like.”

Since federalizing DC’s police force amid his own frustrations with the city and its leadership, Trump has steadily escalated the matter despite little evidence of the crime wave that he’s insisted is sweeping through the capital and other major cities. The president called in National Guard troops from several states to patrol DC, and has threatened to deploy federal forces to other Democratic-run cities in the coming weeks.

In a marathon Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump referenced crime more than two dozen times, attacking mayors and governors and repeatedly referring to Chicago as a “hellhole.” He later vowed to pass sweeping crime legislation, in a sign he plans to press the issue well into the fall.

The White House disputed that Trump’s increasing discussion of crime represented a shift in priorities, arguing that he’s long made law-and-order issues a focus dating back to his first political campaign.

“Making America Safe Again was a key campaign promise for President Trump – he has long talked about addressing violent crime, especially in our nation’s capital, and ensuring all Americans feel safe in their communities,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Still, the sudden overwhelming focus on law and order has generated sharp backlash among Democrats and voters in DC and elsewhere who have decried Trump’s actions as unprecedented and unwarranted — and noted that contrary to the White House’s assertions, violent crime has dropped substantially in major urban centers throughout the country.

Trump’s opponents argue that his crackdown will ultimately backfire by feeding a negative perception of him as increasingly authoritarian while accomplishing little of substance in terms of public safety. Indeed, Trump himself has mused about being viewed as a dictator, though he’s asserted that people would be okay with it “if he stops crime.”

Yet within Trump’s orbit, aides and advisers have only grown more convinced that the law-and-order narrative will pay off politically despite the criticism, latching onto polling that they say indicates voters are more concerned about violent crime than is widely understood.

Private surveys circulated among Trump advisers recently indicate that voters have grown more concerned about crime in their communities since Trump launched his high-profile DC crackdown — and that the president’s tough talk about “stopping” criminals is resonating well beyond the party’s base, the person close to the White House said.

In one new survey conducted by McLaughlin & Associates — a top Trump campaign polling firm — nearly 9 in 10 respondents ranked rising crime as a serious problem, according to the yet-to-be-released results shared with CNN. White House allies have also pointed to recent public polling as evidence of the issue’s salience, as multiple polls conducted recently have shown Trump scoring better approval ratings on crime than on nearly all other issues and an AP/NORC survey found 81% of Americans view crime in large cities as a “major problem.”

Against that backdrop, Trump has relished the opportunity to lean into the law-and-order rhetoric that featured so heavily in his first term and on the campaign trail, advisers said. The president who once depicted the US as a “failing nation” full of “American carnage” has tried to advance a more optimistic view since returning to office, driven by the belief in his orbit that he’d be rewarded if he could get domestic prices down and foreign wars stopped.

“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier,” Trump said during an inaugural speech where he also vowed to “rapidly bring down costs and prices.”

But with no major breakthroughs on the horizon, the president has revived his dark portrayals of American cities, boasting in the process about the difficult spot he’s forced Democrats into as party leaders try to criticize the administration’s actions while avoiding being tagged as soft on crime.

“They’re thinking this is like ‘defunding the police,’” one Trump adviser said of the internal strategy, referring to the progressive slogan that Republicans weaponized against Democrats even long after party leaders had rejected the idea. “Crime is one of the most basic quality of life issues we have — it’s crime and affordability … and he thinks it’s good policy and usually good policy ends up being good politics.”

There is still some lingering concern in GOP circles that Trump risks overplaying his hand if he goes too far. The same polls that show voters care about perceived big-city crime also indicate skepticism that flooding those cities with federal troops is the right solution. Just 36% of Americans support “federal officials bringing the Washington, DC local police under federal control citing a public safety emergency,” a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found, while 38% support “deploying National Guard troops from other states to Washington, DC, for law enforcement efforts.”

“There’s a difference between improving public safety and a show of force,” said Doug Heye, a longtime Republican strategist. “You get into a different place potentially when you start sending (the National Guard) to big cities — by the way, only blue states — where you don’t have that constitutional exemption like you do with DC.”

Even Trump has appeared to acknowledge that line of late, shifting away from declarations that other cities like Chicago were next up for a federal takeover in favor of castigating governors and mayors for failing to “invite” him in to crack down on crime.

And while the law-and-order rhetoric has grabbed headlines throughout much of August, there’s no sign as of yet that it’s close to overtaking core cost-of living challenges as the primary concern driving voters’ decisions. An August Gallup poll, for example, finds only 3% mention crime as the most important problem facing the country vs. 34% who mention economic issues.

At least for now, Trump and his allies maintain that their renewed focus on crime has paid off far beyond initial expectations — and that any boost it can provide Republicans headed into next year may make the difference come November.

“It’s an issue that’s more bread and butter,” the person close to the White House said. “I do think it excites both the base and excites the nontraditional Republican voter, and that’s going to be important in the midterms.”

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