By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose, Reuters
US President Donald Trump shows crime statistics at a press conference, as he announces he will place the DC Metropolitan Police Department under federal control. Photo: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images via AFP
President Donald Trump said he was putting Washington's police department under federal control and ordering the National Guard to deploy to the nation's capital to combat what he said was a wave of lawlessness, despite statistics showing that violent crime hit a 30-year low in 2024.
"I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, DC," Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. "Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals."
Trump's announcement is his latest effort to target Democratic-run cities by exercising executive power over traditionally local matters, and he has shown particular interest in asserting more control over Washington.
The Republican president has dismissed criticism that he is manufacturing a crisis to justify expanding presidential authority in a heavily Democratic city.
Hundreds of officers and agents from over a dozen federal agencies, including the FBI, ICE, DEA, and ATF, have fanned out across the city in recent days.
Trump said he would also send in the US military "if needed," and Hegseth said he was prepared to call in additional National Guard troops from outside Washington. Bondi will oversee the police force takeover, Trump said.
In making his announcement, Trump described Washington as a hellscape of bloodthirsty criminals and unchecked violence.
The Democratic major of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has pushed back on Trump's claims, saying the city is "not experiencing a crime spike" and highlighting that violent crime hit its lowest level in more than three decades last year.
Violent crime fell 26 percent in the first seven months of 2025 after dropping 35 percent in 2024, and overall crime dropped 7 percent, according to the city's police department.
Local residents rally against US President Donald Trump's plans to activate federal law enforcement in Washington, DC. Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
Trump ramps up rhetoric
Over the past week, Trump has intensified his messaging, suggesting he might attempt to strip the city of its local autonomy and implement a full federal takeover.
The District of Columbia, established in 1790, operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress ultimate authority but allows residents to elect a mayor and city council. Trump said last week that lawyers are examining how to overturn the law, a move that would likely require Congress to revoke it.
'Special conditions'
In taking over the Metropolitan Police Department, Trump invoked a section of the act that allows the president to use the force temporarily when "special conditions of an emergency nature" exist. Trump said he was declaring a "public safety emergency" in the city.
Trump's own Federal Emergency Management Agency is cutting security funding for the National Capital Region, an area that includes DC and nearby cities in Maryland and Virginia. The region will receive $20 million less this year from the federal urban security fund, amounting to a 44 percent year-on-year cut.
The deployment of National Guard troops is a tactic the president used in Los Angeles, where he dispatched 5000 troops in June in response to protests over his administration's immigration raids. State and local officials objected to Trump's decision as unnecessary and inflammatory.
A federal trial was set to begin on Monday (local time) in San Francisco on whether the Trump administration violated US law by deploying National Guard troops and US Marines without the approval of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
The president has broad authority over the 2700 members of the DC National Guard, unlike in states where governors typically hold the power to activate troops. Guard troops have been dispatched to Washington many times, including in response to the 6 January, 2021, attack on the US Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters.
During his first term, Trump sent the National Guard into Washington in 2020 to help quash mostly peaceful demonstrations during nationwide protests over police brutality following the murder of George Floyd. Civil rights leaders denounced the deployment, which was opposed by Bowser.
The US military is generally prohibited under law from directly participating in domestic law enforcement activities.
Since the 1980s, Trump has used crime, especially youth crime in cities, as a political tool. His 1989 call for the death penalty in the Central Park jogger case, involving five Black and Latino teens later exonerated of raping and beating a woman, remains among the controversial moments of his public life.
The "Central Park Five" sued Trump for defamation after he falsely said during a presidential debate last year that they had pleaded guilty.
- Reuters
