Union Station has always been a symbol of Washington, D.C. — a crossroads where the powerful and the powerless pass by one another under the same vaulted ceilings. On August 20, it became something else: the backdrop for the Trump administration’s ongoing battle against crime, order versus chaos on full display.
Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller made an unannounced visit to the station to tout the results of President Trump’s dramatic takeover of D.C. law enforcement. The president’s move — deploying 800 National Guard troops and assuming control of the city’s police force — was one of the boldest federal crackdowns in the capital’s history.
🚨 JUST IN: JD Vance ROASTS the leftist protestors harassing National Guard troops
“It is kind of bizarre we have a bunch of old, primarily WHITE people who are out there protesting the policies that keep people safe when they have never felt danger in their entire lives.”… pic.twitter.com/BD68A5IdyN
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 20, 2025
And while the officials spoke to reporters from inside a Shake Shack, the clash of narratives could not have been clearer. From the main hall, a ragtag group of protesters pounded drums and chanted “Free D.C.!” Their target wasn’t crime, drugs, or gangs, but the very officials working to reduce them.
Miller cut straight to the point: these weren’t residents defending their neighborhoods, but “crazy communists” and “elderly white hippies” — a demographic far removed from the Black residents who have endured D.C.’s violence for decades. “Most citizens in Washington D.C. are Black,” Miller said. “This is not a city that has had any safety for its Black citizens for generations, and President Trump is the one who is fixing that.”
Vance, too, didn’t mince words. He pointed to his own family’s past experiences at Union Station — “a couple of years ago, when I brought my kids here, they were being screamed at by violent vagrants, and it scared the hell out of my kids.” Now, he insisted, the station is a place parents can once again bring their children without fear. He cited a stunning 35% drop in violent crime in just nine days since the Guard arrived.
.@StephenM COOKS the deranged pro-crime protesters in D.C.: “We’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old.” pic.twitter.com/rqA54T8tbf
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 20, 2025
Hegseth underscored why the location mattered: “This is their No. 1 call location for first responders… part of the epicenter.” In other words, if law and order can be restored at Union Station, it can ripple outward across the city.
The symbolism of the visit was capped when Vance and the others turned from reporters to the Guardsmen themselves. Thanking them for long hours and thankless duty, Vance quipped: “You guys bust your ass all day and we give you hamburgers — not a fair trade but we’re grateful for everything you do.”
