WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump stated on Monday he was deploying 800 Nationwide Guard troops to the US capital and placing Washington’s police division below federal management to fight what he stated was a wave of lawlessness, regardless of statistics displaying that violent crime hit a 30-year low in 2024.
“I am deploying the Nationwide Guard to assist reestablish legislation, order and public security in Washington, D.C.,” Trump instructed reporters on the White Home, flanked by administration officers together with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and Lawyer Common Pam Bondi. “Our capital metropolis has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.”
Trump’s announcement is his newest effort to focus on Democratic-run cities by exercising government energy over historically native issues, and he has proven specific curiosity in asserting extra management over Washington.
The Republican president has dismissed criticism that he’s manufacturing a disaster to justify increasing presidential authority in a closely Democratic metropolis.
A whole bunch of officers and brokers from over a dozen federal companies, together with the FBI, ICE, DEA and ATF, have fanned out throughout town in current days.
A demonstrator holds an indication throughout a protest close to the White Home, as US President Donald Trump introduced he’s inserting the D.C. Metropolitan Police Division below direct federal management and deploying Nationwide Guard troops to the US capital, in Washington D.C., August 11, 2025. REUTERS/ Ken Cedeno
Trump stated he would additionally ship within the US army “if wanted,” and Hegseth stated he was ready to name in further Nationwide Guard troops from exterior Washington. Bondi will oversee the police drive takeover, Trump stated.
In making his announcement, Trump described Washington as a hellscape of bloodthirsty criminals and unchecked violence.
The Democratic mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has pushed again on Trump’s claims, saying town is “not experiencing a criminal offense spike” and highlighting that violent crime hit its lowest stage in additional than three a long time final 12 months.
Violent crime fell 26% within the first seven months of 2025 after dropping 35% in 2024, and general crime dropped 7%, in keeping with town’s police division.
Trump ramps up rhetoric
Over the previous week, Trump has intensified his messaging, suggesting he would possibly try and strip town of its native autonomy and implement a full federal takeover.
The District of Columbia, established in 1790, operates below the Dwelling Rule Act, which supplies Congress final authority however permits residents to elect a mayor and metropolis council. Trump stated final week that legal professionals are analyzing methods to overturn the legislation, a transfer that will doubtless require Congress to revoke it.
‘Particular situations’
In taking on the Metropolitan Police Division, Trump invoked a piece of the act that enables the president to make use of the drive briefly when “particular situations of an emergency nature” exist. Trump stated he was declaring a “public security emergency” within the metropolis.
Trump’s personal Federal Emergency Administration Company is chopping safety funding for the Nationwide Capital Area, an space that features D.C. and close by cities in Maryland and Virginia. The area will obtain $20 million much less this 12 months from the federal city safety fund, amounting to a 44% year-on-year minimize.
The deployment of Nationwide Guard troops is a tactic the president utilized in Los Angeles, the place he dispatched 5,000 troops in June in response to protests over his administration’s immigration raids. State and native officers objected to Trump’s choice as pointless and inflammatory.
A federal trial was set to start on Monday in San Francisco on whether or not the Trump administration violated US legislation by deploying Nationwide Guard troops and US Marines with out the approval of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
The president has broad authority over the two,700 members of the D.C. Nationwide Guard, not like in states the place governors sometimes maintain the facility to activate troops. Guard troops have been dispatched to Washington many occasions, together with in response to the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
Throughout his first time period as president, Trump despatched the Nationwide Guard into Washington in 2020 to assist quash largely peaceable demonstrations throughout nationwide protests over police brutality following the homicide of George Floyd. Civil rights leaders denounced the deployment, which was opposed by Bowser.
The US army is usually prohibited below legislation from instantly taking part in home legislation enforcement actions.
Because the Nineteen Eighties, Trump has used crime, particularly youth crime in cities, as a political instrument. His 1989 name for the loss of life penalty within the Central Park jogger case, involving 5 Black and Latino teenagers later exonerated of raping and beating a lady, stays among the many controversial moments of his public life.
The “Central Park 5” sued Trump for defamation after he falsely stated throughout a presidential debate final 12 months that they’d pleaded responsible. — Reuters
