The Aug. 21 front-page article “D.C. restaurants suffer amid federal crackdown” badly overstated the impact of President Donald Trump’s federalization of D.C. police on restaurant attendance.

Buried in the article is a key point that undermines the headline: OpenTable’s daily data showing 20 percent to 31 percent drops in seated reservations compares this year’s Aug. 12–17 period with last year’s equivalent dates. But every single one of those 2024 numbers occurred during last year’s Restaurant Week, which always inflates reservations significantly. This year’s Summer Restaurant Week started one week later. That timing quirk alone makes the fall in the first week of federalization look far steeper than it really is.

In fact, when this year’s Summer Restaurant Week began on Aug. 18, reservations were up 29 percent compared with the final day of last year’s promotion. It’s possible that future like-for-like data will indeed show some depressive effect of Trump’s policies, the impact of which is ambiguous. But OpenTable also reports that, in the first week of federalization, bookings were down only 7 percent compared with the week before. This is hardly evidence of mass cancellations.

Did it ever really pass the smell test that one-quarter to one-third of diners were suddenly shunning D.C. eateries because of Humvees at Union Station or the possibility of patrols in Dupont Circle? There are serious civil liberties and policing arguments against the president’s federalizing of our force. Pretending that it is devastating the restaurant business is not one of them.