Larry Krasner responds to Trump threat to send troops to US cities

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner joined local faith leaders to condemn President Donald Trump’s recent deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., warning of broader implications as Trump signals federal interventions in other major U.S. cities.

Krasner spoke to reporters at the Church of Christian Compassion in West Philly, warning that deploying the National Guard to Philadelphia would cause more harm than good, and combated the president’s idea that federal troops are necessary to combat crime.

“I just never really thought that the preservation of the government of the United States would be an issue that I would have to face,” he said. “I just never thought that military invasion of America’s big cities with a fear-based racist agenda to pave a path for a military takeover is something that I would face, and I deeply wish I didn’t face it.”

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The conference took place a day after Trump issued a directive to assume federal command of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, planning to deploy 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital. Trump declared that the strategy “will go further,” naming Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Oakland, California, as the next possible targets for similar deployments.

Although Philadelphia was not named in the federal command takeover, the city has a well-documented history of unwanted actions from Donald Trump, including the time he wanted to eliminate the votes of Philadelphians during the 2020 Presidential election.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Wanted to Throw Out 300,000 Philly Votes in 2020

Peter Andrews, former U.S. attorney during the Biden administration — now working for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, said that the president’s actions show that this initiative not about crime at all.

“The fact that the president would on the one hand pardon those defendants and then turn around and say, as he has said this week, that committing an offense against a law enforcement officer will be met with the strongest possible response — it’s not just hypocritical, it reveals that the president does not understand the rule of law,” he said. “He believes that there’s one rule if you support him and one rule if you do not.”

Philadelphia’s plunge in violent crime reflects a national trend. The national homicide rate fell by 12% in 2023, 14% in 2024 and is projected to drop another 20% in 2025, according to sources.

Mark Umansky, ward leader for Philadelphia’s 9th Ward Republican Committee, told WHYY News that, despite recent drops in violent crime, the city’s crime rates are still higher than they should be.

“With a population of 1.5 million, we’ve recorded 138 homicides this year in Philadelphia, nearly as many as New York City’s 146, despite New York having more than six times our population,” he said via email. “While every large city has had a decrease in crime this year, Philadelphia lags behind nearly all of them percentage-wise. The numbers speak for themselves, and they don’t even account for other violent crimes, property crimes, and unreported incidents.”

While the president does not have the authority to take federal control of local police departments, he still may be able to send troops.

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Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner Responds to Trump’s Threat to Send Federal Troops to U.S. cities  was originally published on rnbphilly.com