NEW: CNN Host’s Trump Attack Immediately Backfires

A reliably anti-Trump CNN anchor took a not-so-veiled shot at the president for his Washington, D.C. takeover — but it backfired in a big way.

Following Trump’s announcement on Monday that the federal government will be taking over duties in the nation’s capital for up to 30 days, Abby Phillip felt it was appropriate to derisively compare Trump to Batman as he repeatedly restores law and order to the streets of Gotham.

“Donald Trump makes himself Batman,” Phillip said in a clip circulating on social media. “And the nation’s capital is Gotham City.”

If Phillip had meant to make Trump found like a hero in his own mind, it didn’t work as social media users rushed to declare him “cool” for focusing on protecting streets that were left lawless by the Democrats in charge.

“That makes President Trump sound SUPER COOL!” one X user wrote. “Don’t think that was Abby’s intention at all.”

“Cool!” remarked another.

Libs of TikTok, a popular conservative media account, joked, “I already voted for him! You don’t have to keep convincing me!”

As internet denizens often do, they responded to Phillip’s joke with some of their own. Several X users replaced Batman’s spotlight logo with an unmistakable version of Trump’s coifed hairline.

Another user posted Trump casually strolling across the White House lawn as a caped shadow trails behind him.

Phillips’s comparison between Washington, D.C. and Gotham also resonated with users who could relate to the comically high levels of violence and petty crime they’ve seen plague city streets in recent months.

“If DC is Gotham, it’s only because Democrats turned it into a crime-ridden cesspool,” one MAGA account replied to Phillip.

“Trump cleaning it up isn’t a roleplay, it’s leadership. And judging by the panic in the media, he’s hitting all the right villains.”

Others agreed, with a catch.

“LOL! DC isn’t classy enough to be Gotham City!” laughed one.

Another observed, “If he’s Batman then Gotham just got a whole lot safer.”

The rush to judge Trump’s takeover as dastardly became a whole lot harder after Monday night, when an overnight shooting marked the 100th homicide to hit the city just this year. Even Mayor Muriel Bowser, who slammed Trump’s action as “unsettling,” later conceded that crime is still endemic to city life in the nation’s capital, the Western Journal noted.

Earlier on Thursday, CNN correspondent Gabe Cohen grudgingly admitted that Union Station, a prime tourist lookout that’s frequently marred by homelessness and litter, looks a lot cleaner after one week with Trump in charge.

“This is one of the areas of focus that we have heard a lot of concerns about, crime around Union Station, people who are loitering outside,” Cohen told Dean. “I will tell you, as somebody who walks this route all the time, it does seem like there are fewer people just sort of hanging around, but we don’t know exactly what that is.”