'Wholly unnecessary': Law enforcement rips MAGA governor for federal troops 'stunt'

Louisiana's MAGA Governor Jeff Landry (R) got pummeled by online critics ridiculing his pleas for the Trump administration to send federal troops to his state, The Daily Beast reports.

Landry had started "begging" President Donald Trump to send troops to his state after Trump said he was considering sending troops to the blue city of New Orleans, writing on X, "We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!"

On Monday, Landry sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth an official letter requesting federal assistance to New Orleans and two reliably Democratic cities — Shreveport and capital Baton Rouge.

The governor's requests for 1,000 National Guard personnel to be deployed to the three cities through October 2026 were met with ridicule and condemnation.

"New Orleans has had the fewest murders this year since 1970. Carjackings are down 80 percent relative to 2022, vehicle burglaries are down 70 percent, shootings are down 63 percent. This is a wholly unnecessary stunt that will hurt local businesses," crime trends analyst Jeff Asher wrote in a Bluesky post.

And while Landry told Sean Hannity on Fox News Monday that crime was going up and his request was made in order “to reduce the amount of violence” in the state, law enforcement officials called the governor out for lying.

"Our crime rate is going down,” Hans Ganthier, the assistant superintendent of New Orleans’ police department, told reporters on Tuesday.

Local politicians agreed, including State Rep. Joy Walters (D), who represents a district in Shreveport, who said, “Deploying troops to Shreveport will not solve our problems or crime. Crime is not eliminated by soldiers on the streets — crime is reduced when people have access to better jobs/careers/wages, education, healthcare, and opportunity.”

Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA) said that Landry's militarization of the state will exacerbate crime.

“We don’t embrace the notion of having National Guardsmen with M-16s walking the streets of New Orleans, militarizing our communities and perhaps adding more insult to injury,” he said.