Trump to take over D.C. police, deploy National Guard in effort to fight crime

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday announced he will deploy approximately 800 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and federalize the city’s police in an effort to fight crime.

The moves mark a significant escalation in the president’s attacks on the nation’s capital. Trump on Sunday claimed the district was “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World,” although the Justice Department said that the crime rate fell to a 30-year low last year.

The president also said that he would declare a public safety emergency in D.C. and that Attorney General Pam Bondi would “take command of the Metropolitan Police Department as of this moment.”

One hundred to 200 troops out of the 800 activated “will be supporting law enforcement at any given time,” Army Public Affairs confirmed, adding that the troops would have “administrative, logistics and physical presence” tasks.

“When you walk down the street, you’re going to see police or you’re going to see FBI agents,” Trump said during a press availability Monday morning. “We’re going to have a lot of agents on the street. You’re going to have a lot of, essentially military. And we will bring in the military if it’s needed.”

NBC News previously reported that Trump was considering ordering the National Guard into the district. He announced that around 800 National Guard troops would be deployed, but said he would send “much more if necessary.”

Bondi, who Trump said will helm D.C. police, declared that crime would end in D.C.

“Let me be crystal clear: Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today,” she said.

Trump must notify certain members of Congress within 48 hours about the reason for taking over control of police and the estimated timeline for federal control, according to the D.C. Home Rule Act. Trump said he would make the “appropriate” notifications to Congress and the mayor’s office.

The act also indicates that Trump can take control of the D.C. police for 30 days, unless Congress authorizes an extension.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would comply with Trump’s directive, which she called “unsettling and unprecedented.”

“We will follow the law,” she told reporters after the president’s announcement. “I’m going to work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster” and get this “so-called emergency” put to an end, Bowser said.

Ahead of the announcement, Trump on Sunday railed against homelessness in the city. Trump on Monday said that the administration would remove homeless encampments.

D.C. attorney general Brian Schwalb blasted the administration’s actions on X as “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.”

“We are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents,” he wrote.

D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, said in a statement that Trump’s moves were a “historic assault on D.C. home rule,” as well as “counterproductive” and “escalatory.”

“It does not escape me that the president is calling in the [D.C. National Guard] on the pretext of a surge in crime that the numbers do not support, while he was nowhere to be found for hours on January 6, 2021, as D.C. officials tried to get him to mobilize the DCNG as the U.S. Capitol was under siege,” Norton added.

Critics are quick to point out that, while Trump has sought to make defending law enforcement a pillar of his second term, he also pardoned hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters, many of whom were convicted of attacking police officers.

Trump’s announcements come after the White House increased the federal law enforcement presence in D.C., which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had framed as a “first step in stopping the violent crime that has been plaguing the streets of Washington, DC.”

About 450 federal law enforcement officers were deployed across D.C. on Saturday and Sunday evenings, according to a White House official.

Last week, Trump renewed his criticism of D.C. following an alleged assault on Edward Coristine, an original Department of Government Efficiency aide known online as “Big Balls,” in an attempted carjacking.

“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social last week.

D.C. police data indicates that violent crime has decreased 26% compared to last year. The D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office also announced in January that violent crime in the district in 2024 was at a 30-year low, citing police data.

Trump has the authority to temporarily take control of the local police. For the president to mount a full federal takeover of the city, however, Congress would first need to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act, which granted D.C. a level of self-governance.

Trump also said he might launch a similar effort in large Democratic-run cities.

“Other cities are hopefully watching this,” he said. “Maybe they’ll self-clean up, and maybe they’ll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem.”

Trump faced criticism after deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles as a response to protests against his immigration policies.

Bowser acknowledged to reporters in her press conference that D.C. is in a different situation, while pointing a finger at Congress.

“If people are concerned about a president’s ability to have the MPD, police department, be responsive to the Department of Justice, the time to address that is when we’re talking about statehood for D.C. If people are concerned about the president being able to move the National Guard into our city, the time to do that would have been when the Congress had a bill that it could have given control of the DC National Guard to D.C.,” Bowser said.

“So there are things that when a city is not a state and not fully autonomous, and doesn’t have senators, that the federal government can do.”

In an interview on MSNBC Sunday, Bowser pushed back on the assertion that her city is riddled with crime.

“If the priority is to show force in an American city, we know [Trump] can do that here, but it won’t be because there’s a spike in crime,” she said.

On Monday morning, Trump also proclaimed “liberation day in D.C.” in an all-capitalized post to Truth Social.

“Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today!” he said in a separate post Monday morning. “Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR.”

Trump signed an executive order in March to make D.C. “safe and beautiful,” establishing a task force to work with local officials on safety issues, such as by increasing the federal law enforcement presence in the city.