Karoline Leavitt, the White House press director, expressed concerns that left-leaning policies, particularly cashless bail, are contributing to rising violent crime in cities nationwide, including those governed by Democrats in Republican states.
Leavitt pointed out that while crime exists everywhere, many of the top 20 cities struggling with crime are led by Democratic officials, except for one city in Louisiana. She emphasized that many of these cities have implemented similar policies like cashless bail.
The spokesperson was asked about the administration’s collaboration with Republican governors to tackle crime in these cities rather than focusing solely on Democrat-led areas. It’s worth noting that President Trump has threatened to increase law enforcement efforts in cities like Chicago and Baltimore, yet hasn’t shown the same level of scrutiny towards cities with high crime rates in Republican-led states, such as Memphis in Tennessee.
Leavitt attributed the surge in violent crime to leftist judicial approaches, affecting both Republican and Democrat states and highlighted Jackson, Mississippi, and Birmingham, Alabama as examples.
She mentioned, “If you look at the red state of Mississippi and its Democratic-controlled city, Jackson, you’ll see that in 2019, cash bail was eliminated for nearly all misdemeanor cases. Jackson isn’t officially a sanctuary city, but…”
In Birmingham, she noted, the local government, under Democratic leadership, agreed to a resolution that effectively established a sanctuary policy in 2017. This, she suggested, has allowed criminals to re-offend and escalate violence.
President Trump’s platform has consistently focused on addressing crime, particularly in light of the violence that surged since 2020 amidst police-related protests and riots. In August 2025, he federalized Washington, D.C. to manage its police forces temporarily as part of his agenda aimed at restoring order.
After significant criminal activity and over 2,000 arrests, Trump lauded Washington’s crackdown on crime and proposed deploying the National Guard to other cities like Chicago. However, local leaders, including Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, have labeled such measures as excessive and authoritarian.
Leavitt concluded by saying that the President is eager to collaborate with anyone willing to rectify these troubling policies and restore law and order, pointing to the positive engagement seen between the mayor of D.C. and federal officials.
