Belle critiques three Republican governors who sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., following Trump’s push for a show of force. She argues this exposes the move as a pure political stunt, not a response to crime.

The White House justified the deployments by claiming D.C. had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country. But Belle fact-checks this: the cited study only included 24 communities, and in reality, cities like Cleveland, Dayton, and Toledo have much higher homicide and violent crime rates. Ironically, Ohio—home to those cities—is one of the states sending troops to D.C. If crime were the real reason, Belle argues, these governors would have deployed troops in their own states long ago.

Meanwhile, Vermont’s Republican governor Phil Scott declined to send troops, recognizing the request as a misuse of the Guard.

Bottom line: Deploying troops to D.C. has nothing to do with public safety—it’s about political theater. When violence inevitably occurs, Belle stresses, remember the troops were only there to serve as props.