Former CNN host Don Lemon tried to stage a hit piece on President Trump’s anti-crime strategy—but the stunt blew up in his face. During a series of interviews in Baltimore, one of America’s most crime-plagued cities, residents refused to play along with Lemon’s narrative. Instead, they openly supported Trump’s tough-on-crime approach and demanded that the same National Guard deployment now stabilizing Washington, D.C. be extended to their neighborhoods.

The interviews aired Friday, September 5, and were meant to portray Trump’s crackdown as “authoritarian.” What Lemon got instead was raw, unfiltered truth from ordinary Americans who live every day in the chaos that Democrat-run cities have allowed to fester.

One particularly outspoken resident, who said he was originally from Chicago, bluntly told Lemon: *“I do support it. Chicago is a war zone. I really do \[want the Guard].”* Shocked, Lemon pressed further, asking whether troops should actually be sent in. The man didn’t flinch. He explained that while he didn’t expect the Guard to make arrests, their presence would act as a deterrent and bring a badly needed sense of order: *“I really am in favor of what he’s doing in D.C. with it.”*

When Lemon tried to push back with statistics, the resident hit him with facts that the corporate media conveniently ignore. *“How many people have died in D.C. since we started? How many people have got shot and killed? It was zero,”* the man said, adding pointedly, *“How can you be more BLM than saving their lives?”*

The back-and-forth quickly turned into a lesson for Lemon. When the former CNN anchor insisted crime was already declining, the resident countered with numbers straight from the mayor’s office—carjackings down 86% since the Guard was deployed. He asked the obvious question that Democrats and their media allies dodge: *“What is the real goal here? Is it to take over a city, or is it to keep people safe? I think it’s to keep people safe.”*

Lemon then resorted to the usual Beltway excuse—money. Deploying troops costs too much, he argued. The resident wasn’t buying it. *“Very minimal,”* he shot back. *“What kind of price are you going to put on the number of murders prevented? There was a murder every two days—up until he started this.”*

Cornered, Lemon fell back on process complaints, whining that Trump’s successes don’t count because he’s “antagonizing” local officials. But that’s the point—those very local officials have presided over decades of rising violence, abandoned neighborhoods, and grieving families. They oppose Trump not because his strategy fails, but because it works and exposes their own failures.

What Lemon’s Baltimore stunt really proved is that everyday Americans, particularly those in communities ravaged by crime, are fed up with excuses and empty promises. They don’t want hashtags, slogans, or hollow speeches about “equity.” They want safety. And they’re not afraid to say it—even if it means roasting a smug former CNN anchor to his face.