Watch Trump be called ‘Hitler of our time’ to his face during trip to fancy D.C. restaurant

President Donald Trump was called “the Hitler of our time” to his face on Tuesday night during his first-ever dinner at a Washington, D.C., restaurant outside the hotel he previously owned, in a staged appearance meant to showcase the city’s supposed safety under his federal takeover of policing.

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Trump, 79, took a three-minute motorcade less than one city block from the White House to Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, accompanied by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It was the first time in two terms that Trump had been seen dining in the city beyond his former Pennsylvania Avenue hotel, which had become a centerpiece of Republican D.C. wheeling and dealing in his first term.

Standing outside Joe’s, Trump boasted, “We’re standing right in the middle of D.C., which … was a very unsafe place. And now it’s got virtually no crime. We call it crime-free.”

Related: Justice Department employee charged & fired after throwing Subway sandwich at federal law enforcement officer

But the message unraveled inside the restaurant. “You’re not welcome here,” activists yelled, according to a video posted to social media. The footage shows Trump approaching the hecklers as Secret Service agents scrambled to contain the scene. “Free D.C.! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time,” they shouted directly at him. Trump cocked his head back and forth, grinned, and then pointed at the protesters, signaling to agents to remove them. “What do you want your legacy to be?” one woman yelled as she was escorted out.

Feminist activist group Code Pink claimed credit for the protest online.

"He looked us right in the eyes, and we stood our ground, and we continued to be steadfast in our call for the end of the occupation here and in Gaza and globally, we are not afraid of Trump," one activist said in a video posted by Code Pink on social media. "He is afraid of us."

The outing capped a week in which the president snapped at a reporter for noting he had never dined locally. “Do you want me to prove you wrong?” he shot back, The Daily Beast reports. On Tuesday, he set out to do just that, but instead of controlling the narrative, he found himself compared to history’s darkest authoritarian in the heart of the city he claims to have made safe.

D.C.’s CBS affiliate WUSA9 reports that police data contradict Trump’s “crime-free” claim. Violent crime was already down 26 percent, and homicides were down 12 percent on August 11, the day Trump declared a local emergency and deployed federal forces. By September 8, violent crime was down 27 percent and homicides down 17 percent compared with last year. At least six homicides still happened during the 30-day surge, contrary to Trump’s claims of victory in D.C.

Related: Donald Trump announces he will personally patrol the ‘dangerous’ D.C. streets for ‘crime’ with the military

The administration says federal agents made 2,177 arrests and cleared 50 homeless encampments, the Washington Post reports. As of Tuesday, 2,314 National Guardsmen remained stationed in the city, more than half from out of state. The emergency order was set to expire Wednesday at 11:59 p.m., though Guard deployments have been extended through November 30.

Even as Trump touts his crime crackdown, federal grand juries have repeatedly refused to indict people swept up in it. Grand juries in Washington have rejected at least half a dozen cases brought by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office — an extraordinary rebuke in a system where indictments are usually a foregone conclusion. Among them is Sean Dunn, a gay former Justice Department employee turned local hero accused of throwing a Subway sandwich at a federal officer, whose felony charges collapsed in the grand jury room. Jurors have also refused to indict others accused of assaulting federal agents, forcing prosecutors to downgrade charges.

Related: Federal grand jury in D.C. refuses to indict people accused in Trump’s crime crackdown

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and his entourage dined on crab, shrimp, salad, steak, and dessert, calling the food “phenomenal” and the service “fantastic.” At 10 p.m., as Joe’s closed, Trump emerged to find another waiting crowd, ignored a reporter’s question, and returned to the White House minutes later, according to a White House pool report.