The NY Times reports, Donald Trump said 800 National Guard troops would be assigned to the nation’s capital, and that the approach might be expanded to other cities. His description of crime in Washington did not match official statistics.

President Trump said on Monday that he was taking federal control of the police department in Washington, D.C. and deploying 800 National Guard troops to fight crime there, a significant escalation of his efforts to exert authority over the nation’s capital. He also threatened to expand those efforts to other cities, including Chicago, if they did not deal with crime rates he claimed were “out of control.”

Speaking from the White House briefing room, the president painted a dystopian picture of Washington — including “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs of wild youth” — that stood in sharp contrast to official statistics. Federal officials announced in January that violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low