President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated he wants to roll out his anti-crime initiatives, including sending the National Guard to U.S. cities facing high rates of crime, but ignores that the majority of the most dangerous cities are in red states.

According to Newsweek, out of the twenty-five most dangerous cities per capita, the vast majority — eighteen — are in red states. Only seven out of the twenty-five are in blue states.

The majority of the top ten most dangerous cities, according to Newsweek, are in red states.

1. Memphis, TN
2. Cleveland, OH
3. Toledo, OH
4. Little Rock, AR
5. Peoria, IL
6. Springfield, IL
7. Detroit, MI
8. Akron, OH
9. Beaumont, TX
10. Rockford, IL

Newsweek also reported that “the latest report from the FBI found that crime has decreased overall. Violent crime fell 4.5 percent from 2023 to 2024, while property crime dipped 8.1. percent. Hate crimes had dropped 1.5 percent during that same time period.”

READ MORE: ‘They Even Changed the Font’: Fox Host Blames ‘Libs’ for Controversial Cracker Barrel Logo

But on Monday, President Trump shared a different perspective.

“Mr. President,” a reporter asked in the Oval Office, “on the National Guard, you talked a lot about Democratic runs cities and states. Would you also consider sending the National Guard into red states and red cities that are also seeing high crime?”

“Sure,” Trump replied. “But there aren’t that many of them.”

He claimed, “if you look at the top 25 cities that, for crime — just about every one of those cities is run by Democrats.”

Calling Trump’s claims “misleading,” The Guardian adds that “according to a report by Rochester Institute of Technology, which analyzed FBI data from 2024, two of the cities in the list of highest homicide rates have Republican mayors. And out of the 24 cities in that list, six states are led by GOP governors.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

REPORTER: On the National Guard, you’ve talked a lot about Democratic-run cities and states. Would you also consider sending the National Guard into red states and red cities that are also seeing high crime?

TRUMP: Sure. But there aren’t that many of them. pic.twitter.com/q2a69ef44k

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 25, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Cozying Up to Putin’: VP Scorched for Russia-Promoting Rewrite of World Wars

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is responding after President Donald Trump announced that he will direct the U.S. Department of Justice to sue California over its plan to put new congressional maps before voters, a move state officials say is a response to the president’s directive requiring Texas to redraw its maps to create five additional Republican districts.

In a nearly unprecedented move last month, President Trump told Texas Governor Greg Abbott he wanted new congressional maps drawn in the Lone Star State, to create five new GOP-held seats. The move would help Republicans in their efforts to hold the majority the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterms.

Districts, by constitutional mandate, are redrawn every ten years, based on the official U.S. Census. A mid-decennial redrawing is unusual, although not entirely unprecedented.

READ MORE: ‘They Even Changed the Font’: Fox Host Blames ‘Libs’ for Controversial Cracker Barrel Logo

Governor Newsom had warned that if Texas succeeded, he would move to have his state’s maps redrawn. Texas did, and last week state lawmakers passed legislation that will ask voters this November to approve the redrawn maps.

Asked by a reporter if there is a “federal mechanism” he could use to “fight back” against Governor Newsom’s redistricting, despite having ordered Texas to redistrict, President Trump referred to the California governor as “Gavin Newscum.”

He then replied, “Well, I think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon and I think we’re going to be very successful in it.”

READ MORE: ‘Unconstitutional’: Trump Under Fire for Pushing Jail Time for Flag Burning

“We’re going to be filing it through the Department of Justice. That’s going to happen,” Trump vowed.

Responding to the news of a lawsuit, Governor Newsom wrote on social media: “BRING IT.”

On Thursday, according to CNBC, President Trump praised Texas for its new maps, writing: “The incredible people of Texas will have the opportunity to elect five more Republicans to Congress, thanks to the passage of their much more fair new Map — A BIG WIN for Republicans in Texas, and across the Country!”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump says the DOJ is going to sue to stop California’s redistricting effort pic.twitter.com/bAhGVpWdz2

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 25, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Cozying Up to Putin’: VP Scorched for Russia-Promoting Rewrite of World Wars

Image via Reuters

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning an American flag is protected free speech under the First Amendment, but President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that he said mandates that flag burners be prosecuted and ordered to spend one year behind bars with no possibility of parole.

Under the Constitution, presidents lack the authority to overrule the Supreme Court or mandate punishments.

The executive order, according to a Trump administration official, directs prosecution in cases that “wouldn’t fall afoul of the First Amendment.”

The order is titled, “Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag.”

“The order would not attempt to criminalize burning the American flag,” Axios reported, “but would direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to review cases where the flag has been set ablaze and determine what charges could be brought under existing laws.”

READ MORE: ‘Cozying Up to Putin’: VP Scorched for Russia-Promoting Rewrite of World Wars

It also orders the Attorney General to “prosecute people who ‘desecrate’ the American flag and to detain and remove immigrants who have been accused of such behavior,” according to The Washington Post. And it orders the Attorney General to find a case to challenge the 36-year-old 5-4 Supreme Court precedent.

Last year, a video appeared to show Trump signing an American flag.

The Independent called the executive order “one of biggest challenges to the First Amendment in decades.”

“This is very important,” President Trump declared in an Oval Office event surrounded by top advisors and Cabinet officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Flag burning, all over the country, they’re burning flags,” Trump claimed. “All over the world, they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess there was a five to four decision. They called it freedom of speech, but there’s another reason, which is perhaps much more important.”

“It’s called death, ’cause what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes — it’s crazy. If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy. You can do other things, you can burn this piece of paper, you can. And it’s. But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots,” Trump claimed. “At levels that we’ve never seen before, people go crazy. In a way, both ways, there are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry, angry about them doing it.”

The President told reporters, “the penalty is going to be, if you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing. You get one year in jail. If you burn a flag, you get. And what it does is incite to riot.”

READ MORE: ‘Totally Corrupt’: One Word From VP Triggers Political Firestorm

“You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record,” the President claimed. “And you will see flag burning stopping immediately, just like when I signed the Statue and Monument Act. Ten years in jail, have you hurt any of our beautiful monuments? Everybody left town. They were gone. Never had a problem after that. It’s pretty amazing. We stopped it.”

The President, without offering evidence, also claimed that some flag burners are simply “paid agitators, they’re paid by the radical left to do it. You talk to these people, they don’t even know half of them, don’t even know what they’re doing.”

Critics blasted the President.

“The Supreme Court ruled decades ago that burning an American flag is protected free speech,” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “Any prosecution that is the result of this executive order is by definition unconstitutional.”

The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch pointed to this 2015 quote form the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:

“If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag,” Scalia said. “But I am not king.”

“This flag burning executive order has it all,” wrote Nico Perrino, executive vice president of The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “Symbolic expression is ‘violence’ against the nation. Heckler’s veto justifications for censorship. Misinterpretation/narrowing of the Brandenburg incitement standard. A revitalization of the ‘fighting words’ doctrine.”

In a statement, FIRE wrote: “President Trump may believe he has the power to revise the First Amendment with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn’t. Flag burning as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment. That’s nothing new.”

Constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote: “Patently unconstitutional. 18 USC §700 has been void since Tex. v. Johnson (1989) and U.S. v. Eichman (1990) under the 1A. Second, there is no federal authority for an anti-flag-burning statute. The national government does not have a general police power.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

President Trump signs executive order on flag burning: “All over the country they’re burning flags…through a very sad court…they called it freedom of speech…When you burn the American flag it incites riots…You burn a flag, you get one year in jail.” pic.twitter.com/TSDTh8cleG

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 25, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Who’s Gonna Tell Him to Leave the White House?’: George Conway’s Dire Warning on Trump