President Donald Trump was confronted by protesters who called him “Hitler” as he dined with his Cabinet and White House staff on Tuesday night in an attempt to show how his “crime emergency” in Washington, D.C., made the nation’s capital safer to go out for dinner.
“I wouldn’t have done this three months ago. Four months ago, I certainly wouldn’t have done it a year ago. This was one of the most unsafe cities in the country. Now it’s as safe as there is in the country,” Trump, surrounded by Secret Service, told reporters before he entered Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab blocks away from the White House.
“The restaurants now are booming. People are going out to dinner where they didn’t go out for years, and it’s a safe city. And I just want to thank the National Guard. We loved working with the mayor and the chief, and we all worked together, and the outcome is really spectacular.”
For weeks, Trump and his White House have touted how crime has been reduced in D.C. since he deployed thousands of National Guard troops, federalized the Metropolitan Police Department, and surged federal law enforcement on city streets. However, data showed that restaurant outings declined weeks into his federal operation as some residents expressed concerns about interactions with law enforcement.
Trump was met with both applause and boos when he stepped out of his SUV for dinner at Joe’s, where he was met with pro-Palestinian and “Free DC” protesters.
“Free DC! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!” they chanted repeatedly as Trump, joined by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and others, was being seated. Video captured by the women showed Trump staring them down as he grimaced. He then gestured for them to exit and, moments later, demanded that Secret Service agents remove them from the restaurant.
The women later identified themselves as activists, a part of Code Pink, a group described as “transnational feminists for peace.”
“He looked us right in the eyes, and we stood our ground, and we continue to be steadfast in our call for the end of the occupation here [in D.C.] and in Gaza and globally, we are not afraid of Trump. He is afraid of us,” said one of the women in a video posted to the group’s Instagram page.
Another protester said, “We hope that he sees our faces in his mind for a long time. We will continue to fight for D.C. We will continue to fight for Palestine every single day.”
Trump’s restaurant outing came days after he seemingly threatened “war” in Chicago. In a Truth Social post, he wrote, “Chicago about to learn why it’s called the Department of WAR,” referring to his recent renaming of the Department of Defense. For weeks, Trump has threatened to send military troops to majority Black and brown cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans to crack down on crime.
Democrats leading those cities and states have resisted Trump’s threat, calling him authoritarian. A federal court in California ruled that Trump’s deployment of the state’s National Guard was illegal. The president does not have the authority to deploy the National Guard without the consent of the state’s governor. Despite the court ruling, Trump has continued to flirt with the idea of sending troops to American cities.
“Donald Trump is who he is, and he’s unapologetic about who he is trying to be, and that’s dictator-like behavior,” said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright. He told theGrio, “And with dictator-like behavior comes this idea of governing from a perspective of fear, dysfunction, frustration and uncertainty.”
Markus Batchelor, a D.C. native and political director at People For the American Way, told theGrio, “The president thought he could occupy our city and then go enjoy the spoils of his war on D.C. Last night, the people of the District showed Trump the battle is far from over.”
He continued, “D.C. residents have consistently been on the front line of a national resistance against Trump. No wonder he’s doing everything he can to silence us, jail us, attack our leaders, and overturn our laws.” Batchelor added, “He got to look us in the eyes last night and realize he’s got his work cut out for him.”
One of the activists who interrupted Trump’s dinner said their concerns about the president’s military occupation extended beyond D.C. and U.S. borders.
“They just announced that the Pentagon is the Department of War. It’s always in the Department of War; they have been terrorizing communities and are set to do it in Puerto Rico and Venezuela, saying that Palestine is for sale…There was an evacuation notice for all of Gaza. We are two years into a genocide,” said the protester. She added, “So we were in there saying he will absolutely not be able to have dinner in peace.”
