DONALD Trump has announced he will deploy the National Guard to DC in a move that has been rejected by the city's mayor.
During a White House press conference on Monday, the Republican leader also invoked section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows for the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to be placed under federal control.
He branded the move a “Liberation Day” for DC, despite the action being disproportionate to crime statistics in the area.
“I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse”, the convicted felon told reporters.
The city’s mayor, Democrat Muriel Bowser, rejected Trump’s claims about crime, telling MSNBC: “We are not experiencing a crime spike.”
She said that a crime spike had impacted the capital in 2023, though violent crime is now down 26% compared to 2024 – placing its crime rates at a 30-year low.
Federal crime statistics also counter Trump’s claims, showing rates in DC mirror a nationwide trend of declining offence rates over the past two years.
Trump claimed that DC has a higher murder rate than some of the “worst places on Earth”, referencing cities like Lima, Mexico City and Baghdad.
In response, Bowser said that likening the city to a war-torn area like Baghdad is “hyperbolic and false”.
Alongside deploying the National Guard and placing the MPD under control of Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump has also formally declared a public safety emergency in DC and will reportedly place up to 120 FBI agents on overnight street patrols.
The news comes after the White House’s announcement of a plan to deploy federal law enforcement on the streets of Washington on Thursday – an initiative that appears to have been prompted by the recent assault on former DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) employee Edward Coristine during an attempted carjacking
In the press conference, he also falsely claimed to be heading to Russia on Friday to speak with Vladimir Putin; Putin will in fact be meeting Trump in Alaska as the president aims to end the war in Ukraine.
