Trump DC Guard deployment didn’t gas violence — Biden’s Afghan vetting breakdown did

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Afghan nationwide Rahmanullah Lakanwal was formally charged final week within the horrific capturing of Nationwide Guardsmen Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom in entrance of a Washington, D.C. metro cease. Lakanwal allegedly murdered Beckstrom within the capturing, whereas Wolfe is reportedly nonetheless struggling to get well; Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi has indicated that the Division of Justice intends to hunt the demise penalty.

However whereas Lakanwal has his day in courtroom, a much bigger debate remains to be raging over who is definitely accountable for the homicide: the shooter, or President Donald Trump . Within the wake of the capturing, many on the left rushed to pin the blame on Trump.

Critics argued that the president’s National Guard deployment was a political stunt that had put Guardsmen like Wolfe and Beckstrom within the line of fireplace unnecessarily. The San Francisco Chronicle, for instance, asserted that the shootings got here "after months of warnings that deployments would inflame tensions." The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer took to X simply hours after the capturing to label Trump’s deployment a "political present" and assert that "these poor guardsmen ought to by no means have been deployed."

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The truth is that the deployment of the Guard to D.C., removed from being a present, has pushed down crime within the capital — a big achievement in a metropolis that has lengthy been affected by violence. And duty for Lakanwal’s actions rests primarily with the killer himself, in addition to with the Biden administration, which let him into the nation in 2021 following its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Nobody can dispute that D.C. has a serious violence problem — strive as Trump’s critics would possibly. Previous to the deployment, the city’s homicide rate was down from its 2023 peak, however nonetheless 70% greater than its latest low in 2014. Data from the Council on Legal Justice, a nonpartisan crime-policy group, point out that in 2024, D.C.’s murder charge was greater than these of cities like Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia. And as I’ve present in my own research , this violence is most concentrated within the District’s poorest and most closely minority areas. Within the metropolis, 95% of homicide victims and suspects are Black , and 92% are males.

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The Guard’s presence has virtually actually introduced this violence down. Recent analysis from crime researcher Jeff Asher identifies a marked decline in shootings because the Guard got here in. That’s per prior analysis completed by CBS, in addition to with the reductions in crime that Memphis, Tenn., has seen throughout its personal Nationwide Guard deployment.

Some on the left could wish to faux that the guardsmen are simply there for "present." However it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to grasp that deploying armed authorities brokers cuts crime , each by deterring lawbreaking and by relieving stress on overtaxed and short-staffed police departments. Anybody who professes to care in regards to the well-being of D.C.’s poor, Black, younger males ought to cheer, not jeer.

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The perfect out there proof signifies that Lakanwal’s acts, furthermore, weren't motivated by the Guard’s deployment. So far as we all know, nothing in regards to the presence of the Nationwide Guard in D.C. "infected" him to motion. Reasonably, the image that's starting to emerge is of a disturbed particular person allowed into the country after a hasty vetting course of following the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan.

Nationwide Guard members Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, have been shot in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26. Beckstrom died on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27 on the hospital. Wolfe remains to be recovering from the capturing. (United States Legal professional's Workplace for the District of Columbia/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Pictures)

In keeping with recent reports , Lakanwal had served with the CIA in his dwelling nation of Afghanistan. He was evacuated to america beneath Operation Allies Welcome, the resettlement program initiated by the Biden administration following the Afghanistan withdrawal.

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These evacuees have been ostensibly closely vetted, each by the CIA and the administration. However apparently this vetting missed Lakanwal, who reportedly struggled with assimilation and suffered from post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD). He "had been unraveling for years, unable to carry a job and flipping between lengthy, lightless stretches of isolation and taking sudden weekslong cross-country drives" based on emails obtained by the Related Press.

<source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/343/192/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/686/384/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="192" width="343"><source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/672/378/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/1344/756/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/931/523/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/1862/1046/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"><source media="(min-width: 1280px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/720/405/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/11/1440/810/national-guard-shooter-mugshot-rahmanullah-lakanwal-fox-news-01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="405" width="720"> Undated file photograph of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect within the capturing of two Nationwide Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., on November 26, 2025. (Supplied by Division of Justice)

Lakanwal bears duty for the alleged capturing at the start. However there's additionally blame to be apportioned to no matter failure of vetting let such an individual — regardless of his prior service — into the nation and left him free to deteriorate till he attacked. Lakanwal was one of many tens of millions of immigrants, authorized and unlawful, admitted beneath the Biden administration; his is simply the most recent instance of the perils of uncontrolled, irresponsibly managed immigration.

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In that regard, folks like Lakanwal are precisely whom the Nationwide Guard was deployed to the streets of Washington, D.C. to discourage. Simply as on the border, uncontrolled criminality has raged within the metropolis.

The Guard’s deployment was a significant corrective, not a pointless present. And claiming in any other case does a disservice to Employees Sgt. Wolfe and Spc. Beckstrom, and to each different legislation enforcement officer and guardsmen who places his or her life on the road.