WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump issued a stern warning to protesters in Washington, D.C., during his Aug. 11 news briefing, where he announced plans to federalize the city’s police force and deploy National Guard troops: “You spit and we hit.”
In making the remark, Trump said that he was aware of a recent incident in Navy Yard, a neighborhood located in southeast D.C. Police had arrested a minor on Aug. 9 who discharged a firearm at a group of teens, according to ABC 7 News.
Navy Yard has seen other incidents of violence in the past, including fights breaking out among minors and a 25-year-old arrested in connection with an assault on a police officer.
“They’re not going to be fighting back long,” Trump said of protesters standing up against police.
“They love to spit in the face of the police as the police are standing up there in uniform. They’re standing and they’re screaming at them an inch away from their face, and then they start spitting in their face. And I said you tell them, ‘You spit and we hit,'” he added. “And they can hit real hard. It’s a disgusting thing.”
Trump had previously invoked the warning in June, when he had deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell protests over the administration’s immigration actions.
An undocumented immigrant living in Los Angeles was charged in June for “allegedly spitting on a federal agent executing a warrant for his arrest,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
“Nobody’s going to spit on our police officers. Nobody’s going to spit on our military,” Trump said at the time.
Trump’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital follows an Aug. 3 assault on a former staffer of the Department of Government Efficiency that occurred during an attempted carjacking.
Washington’s crime rate is down this year compared to 2024. Violent crimes are 26% lower than last year. Homicides are down 12%, according to statistics compiled by the Metropolitian Police Department.
Contributing: Zac Anderson and Joey Garrison, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump issues stern warning to protesters: ‘You spit and we hit’
