Joe Battenfeld: Trump threat to deploy troops to other cities puts Boston mayor's crime claims to test

Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald on Sep 2, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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BOSTON -- President Donald Trump’s bid to expand the National Guard to other major cities could throw a spotlight on Boston’s crime rate and put Michelle Wu’s campaign claim it is the safest major city in America to a test.

With the Guard possibly moving into Chicago and Baltimore, just the threat of an expansion into Boston would be a challenge to Wu’s strength in the heat of her race for reelection.

Could it pull her out of her comfort zone of happy talk interviews with public radio?

Trump has not mentioned Boston yet as a city he’d send troops to but he has long targeted Wu and the city over its sanctuary status and is threatening to withhold federal funds.

Would a threat to bring in troops throw a spotlight on crime in Boston and Democrats’ liberal law enforcement policies?

It would be the ultimate challenge to her contention that Boston is the safest major city in America.

“We have been in their sights for months at this point because our city represents everything that showcases why they’re wrong,” Wu said. “ “They’re wrong on the law, they’re wrong on safety. We’re the safest major city in the country because everyone is involved in safety here.”

Wu continues to maintain the facade that Boston is totally safe. But just because she says “we’re the safest major city in the country” a thousand times doesn’t mean it’s true.

Every week, there are shootings, stabbings, motorbike takeovers of the streets and attacks on Wu’s constituents that she prefers to gloss over. The facts are much more murky on whether the city is actually getting safer.

Violent crimes have been going up at Downtown Crossing.

Last week, a Harvard researcher from Brazil was attacked by five teens at a downtown movie theater near the Boston Common because he asked the teens to be quiet in the theater. He was left bloodied and bruised by the attack. None of the teens were arrested by police.

The South End has been plagued by crime, defecating and open air drug use from the spillover at Mass and Cass.

The crime reality spreads right into Boston City Hall, where several city employees have been charged with gun crimes and assault.

Trump lately has been talking about moving Guard troops to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore and New York, all with Democratic mayors.

“You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” Trump said last week. “We have major cities that are very bad.”

“As you all know, Chicago is a killing field.”

The mayors and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey dispute Trump’s characterization and say they don’t want or need the federal help.

“If Donald Trump really cared about public safety he wouldn’t be cutting funding for local law enforcement, which he’s done,” Healey said.

If Trump does expand his targets to Boston, that would rip the facade that Wu has set on crime in the last few months of her re-election race against Josh Kraft.

And it could spark a debate in Boston over public safety that she does not want to engage in.

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