Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, demanded Sunday that residents of Washington “kiss the ground” that President Donald Trump walks on, in thanks for his military mobilization against the capital. Pirro’s demand occurred as businesses in the city have begun to lose money thanks to Trump’s actions.
Pirro made her demand on “Fox & Friends” in response to footage showing D.C. residents marching in opposition to the administration’s recent actions to send in federal law enforcement and the National Guard.
“You know what? They should kiss the ground at this point, that you got someone who wants to make this city safe again, who wants to make it clean again,” Pirro said.
The appearance was a coming-home moment for Pirro, who spent years at Fox News espousing pro-Trump sentiment and furthering conspiracy theories that contributed to the network paying out nearly $800 million in a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Her comments also come as D.C.-area businesses have been forced to deal with the financial fallout from Trump’s actions.
Local station WUSA 9 reported on Sunday that an analysis of data from the restaurant reservation site OpenTable shows a significant drop in reservations since Trump’s actions began. The outlet noted that before Trump’s actions, D.C. restaurants had seen 11 consecutive months of year-over-year improvements in their reservation stats. But that ceased as Trump began to assert authority over the capital.
Instead, while most large American cities have seen their reservation statistics increase in August, D.C.’s has gone down—showing a clear Trump effect.
District of Columbia National Guard soldiers patrol on the National Mall on Aug. 14 in Washington.
Trump has argued that the action against Washington is necessary because crime is up, but his own administration has touted a drop in crime in D.C. In fact, in 2024, crime there hit a 30-year low, a milestone that occurred under former President Joe Biden.
Simultaneously, governors of three Republican-led states—South Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia—have recently announced that they would send National Guard troops to bolster Trump’s operations in D.C.
But data shows that if crime is the true concern of those governors, they would be better off paying attention to problems in their own states. Reporter Philip Bump noted that according to 2024 FBI crime statistics, 43 of the cities in those states had higher rates of crime than Washington did.
Ultimately, the actions by Trump and his fellow Republicans are based on decades of conservative fearmongering about minorities, particularly Black people. Washington is a city with a large Black population, and the current mayor, Muriel Bowser, is a Black woman. Trump has spent his time as a public figure and particularly as president seeking to abuse Black people, while conservative media has promoted a racist link between Black people and crime meant to excite would-be Republican voters.
Conservatives, who have embraced false machismo, have been crying to Trump to suppress the urban population, and the actions against Washington are an outgrowth of those fears.
Meanwhile, law enforcement deployed to Washington have instead been dealing with violations like moped accidents and a drunk man throwing a sandwich—not exactly the level of crime fighting that residents should be kissing the ground over.
Despite the hollowness of the administration’s argument, they would rather the focus be on Washington than Trump and Republicans working overtime to defend accused pedophiles.
