The Washington DC national guard began deploying on the city’s streets on Tuesday night, as the city’s mayor toughened her response to Donald Trump taking control of the city’s police force.
The unusual federalization of law enforcement in the US capital began a day after the president ordered the troops’ arrival, calling Washington DC a “lawless” city, despite official crime statistics saying otherwise, a White House official confirmed.
Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor of Washington, hardened her stance on Tuesday night after treading a more diplomatic line earlier in the day. During a live town hall type event on social media on Tuesday night, she described the arrival of federalized national guard as an authoritarian push.
Bowser called on DC residents and voters to overcome Trump’s move and urged them “to protect our city, to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule and get to the other side of this guy and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push”.
Defense officials had earlier said a small number of the roughly 800 guard members planned for the mission had already been mobilized by Tuesday afternoon, with more expected to arrive in the coming days.
About 850 officers and agents took part in a “massive law enforcement surge” across Washington DC on Monday night and made nearly two dozen arrests, the White House has said. The violent crime rate in Washington DC is at a 30-year low.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday: “As part of the president’s massive law enforcement surge, last night approximately 850 officers and agents were surged across the city. They made a total of 23 arrests, including multiple other contacts.”
The arrests consisted of homicide, firearms offences, possession with intent to distribute narcotics, fare evasion, lewd acts and stalking, Leavitt added. “A total of six illegal handguns were seized off of District of Columbia’s streets as part of last night’s effort.”
Leavitt added: “This is only the beginning. Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the district who breaks the law, undermines public safety and endangers law-abiding Americans.”
The press secretary also told reporters that homeless people have the option to be taken to a homeless shelter and offered addiction and mental health services. “If they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time. These are pre-existing laws that are already on the books. They have not been enforced.”
Trump’s intervention has been widely condemned as an authoritarian power grab that undermines the autonomy of Washington’s DC local government and seeks to distract attention from political problems such as the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Bowser had earlier pledged to work “side by side” with the federal government as national guard troops arrived at their headquarters in the capital.
Speaking after a meeting with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, at the justice department, Bowser told reporters: “You will see the Metropolitan police department (MPD) working side by side with our federal partners in order to enforce the effort that we need around the city.”
On Tuesday night she pushed back harder against Trump’s couching of Washington DC as a city afflicted with crime and homelessness to the point that it is a crisis requiring federal intervention.
Bowser said the issue of homeless people on some DC streets “triggers something” in Trump “that has him believing that our very beautiful city is dirty, which it is not”.
She went on, referring to the population of the city, which itself is small despite supporting a massive federal workforce in the region: “We are not 700,000 scumbags and punks.”
Bowser has up to now cultivated a delicate working relationship with Trump since his return to power in January, avoiding direct confrontations when possible.
She said after the meeting with Bondi: “What I’m focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the additional officer support that we have. We have the best in the business at MPD and chief Pamela Smith to lead that effort and to make sure that the men and women who are coming from federal law enforcement are being well used and that, if there is national guard here, that they’re being well used and all in an effort to drive down crime.”
Other Democratic mayors across the country had warned Trump against expanding his law and order power grab in other major cities.
Trump told reporters on Monday: “We have other cities also that are bad,” citing the Democratic strongholds of Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. “And then, of course, you have Baltimore and Oakland. You don’t even mention them any more, they’re so far gone.”
Stephen Miller, an influential White House deputy chief of staff, stepped up the rhetoric on Tuesday, tweeting without evidence: “Crime stats in big blue cities are fake. The real rates of crime, chaos & dysfunction are orders of magnitude higher. Everyone who lives in these areas knows this. They program their entire lives around it. Democrats are trying to unravel civilization. Pres Trump will save it.”
All five cities named by Trump are run by Black mayors. Most were outspoken in denouncing the president’s move. Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, said in a statement: “Sending in the national guard would only serve to destabilize our city and undermine our public safety efforts.”
Brandon Scott, the mayor of Baltimore, said: “When it comes to public safety in Baltimore, he should turn off the rightwing propaganda and look at the facts. Baltimore is the safest it’s been in over 50 years.”
Barbara Lee, the mayor of Oakland, wrote on X: “President Trump’s characterization of Oakland is wrong and based in fear-mongering in an attempt to score cheap political points.”
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, where troops were sent earlier this month in a crackdown on protests, posted: “Another experiment by the Administration, another power grab from local government. This is performative. This is a stunt. It always has been and always will be.”
Trump took command of the Washington DC police department and deployed the national guard under laws and constitutional powers that give the federal government more sway over the nation’s capital than other cities. But Democrats raised concerns that Washington DC could be a blueprint for similar strong-arm tactics elsewhere.
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, warned that Trump “will gaslight his way into militarising any city he wants in America”.
JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, said the president “has absolutely no right and no legal ability to send troops into the city of Chicago, and so I reject that notion”.
Coral Murphy Marcos and Joanna Walters contributed reporting
