Guns and slogans: Trump dines out on exaggeration

TOI correspondent from Washington: Jeers are trumping cheers for the US President when he comes out of the MAGA bubble. For the second time in three days, the MAGA supremo encountered disgruntled Americans—dismissed by his surrogates as radical left loonies—in the public sphere, pointing to growing disenchantment with his erratic administration playing hardball with the Democratic opposition.

After being roundly booed (amid a few cheers) at the US Open final in Democrat-heavy New York City on Sunday, a brief sortie to a Washington DC restaurant just blocks from the White House to demonstrate that the militarized city is now "safe" from violence saw some patrons break out into protest slogans. “Free D.C.! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!” some of them chanted before walking out, their rhythmic slogan suggesting they were tipped off about the president’s arrival at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab.

Before entering the restaurant, Trump told White House pool reporters who trailed him that Washington, DC, had been a very unsafe place over the last 20 years “and now it’s got virtually no crime” after he brought in the National Guard. The assertion painting the US capital as violent and crime-ridden on the basis of some high-profile incidents has been widely questioned, with critics, including long term residents, saying he is exaggerating and misrepresenting data to militarize the Democrat-leaning city.

While Washington, DC, has its share of crime and violence like many cities in the US and across the world, much of it takes place in specific neighborhoods where Trump's National Guard, drawn mostly from Republican states, has not ventured. Instead, critics say, they have been posted in relatively safe areas—including around touristy monuments—to deliberately create an authoritarian spectacle the president seems to relish.

Trump also falsely claimed that the restaurant business was booming after he brought in the National Guard, even though most surveys paint a dismal scene (more on account of economic headwinds than the militarization). Data from OpenTable shows a sharp drop in reservations nationwide, and it is particularly acute in the Capital. According to restauranteur Ashok Bajaj, who operates ten D.C. restaurants, including the popular Rasika and Bombay Club, there has been a 20% drop in reservations compared to the previous year.

But Trump talked up the eating-out scene—even though he seldom dines out—saying new restaurants are opening and people were flooding back after he had brought in the military to end crime. "The restaurants were all closing because people were afraid. Even if they were in the restaurant, it didn’t matter. They were held up; guys would walk in with guns into a restaurant,” he claimed, a day before he set out on a performative sortie.

Instead of guns, he was met with slogans on one of his rare sorties outside the MAGA echo chamber, which continues to adore him. The US President has now put Chicago and Baltimore, two Democrat-run cities in blue states, in the crosshairs, citing high crime and violence that is endemic in poorer neighborhoods in many cities.