Washington DC mayor says ‘we’re totally surprised’ as Trump’s federal takeover of city police expected to last 30 days – live

We’re seeing a number of reactions from DC city leaders on the president’s move to deploy the National Guard to the city, and federal takeover of the Metropolitan police department (MPD).

DC’s attorney general Brian Schwalb wrote in a post on X that “the administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful”. He added that “Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year”.

Similarly, DC congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said that the president’s actions are “a counterproductive use of DC’s resources to use for his own purposes”.

By contrast, the DC Police Union, which represents more than 3,000 officers in the MPD, said in statement that it “acknowledges and supports” Donald Trump’s decision to federalise the department. “The Union agrees that crime is spiraling out of control, and immediate action is necessary to restore public safety”. The statement did underscore that the measure should be temporary, with “the ultimate goal of empowering a fully staffed and supported MPD to protect our city effectively”.

The US conference of mayors has issued a statement that pushes back against the administration’s deployment of DC national guard troops.

Crime rates are plummeting in cities across the United States, including in Washington, D.C., as documented in the FBI’s national crime rate report released just last week…America’s mayors never see takeovers by other levels of government as a tactic that has any track record of producing results. Local control is always best.

But the conference’s president, Republican David Holt, mayor of Oklahoma City, did add that “we do see great value in partnership between levels of government, and we can imagine value in such partnerships in our nation’s capital”, in his statement.

Here is the full text of Donald Trump’s presidential memorandum “Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia”.

Section 1. Background. As President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the District of Columbia National Guard, it is my solemn duty to protect law-abiding citizens from the destructive forces of criminal activity. That obligation applies with special force in our Nation’s capital, where, as Commander in Chief of the District of Columbia National Guard, I must also ensure that all citizens can avail themselves of the right to interact with their elected representatives, and that the Federal Government can properly function, without fear of being subjected to violent, menacing street crime.

The local government of the District of Columbia has lost control of public order and safety in the city, as evidenced by the two embassy staffers who were murdered in May, the Congressional intern who was fatally shot a short distance from the White House in June, and the Administration staffer who was mercilessly beaten by a violent mob days ago. Citizens, tourists, and staff alike are unable to live peacefully in the Nation’s capital, which is under siege from violent crime. It is a point of national disgrace that Washington, D.C., has a violent crime rate that is higher than some of the most dangerous places in the world. It is my duty to our citizens and Federal workers to secure the safety and the peaceful functioning of our Nation, the Federal Government, and our city.

Sec. 2. Mobilizing the District of Columbia National Guard. Pursuant to my authority under the Constitution and laws of the United States and the District of Columbia, I direct the Secretary of Defense to mobilize the District of Columbia National Guard and order members to active service, in such numbers as he deems necessary, to address the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capital. The mobilization and duration of duty shall remain in effect until I determine that conditions of law and order have been restored in the District of Columbia. Further, I direct the Secretary of Defense to coordinate with State Governors and authorize the orders of any additional members of the National Guard to active service, as he deems necessary and appropriate, to augment this mission.

Sec. 3. General Provisions. This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP

Following Trump’s press conference, the Democratic Mayors Association released the following statement:

Let’s be clear: Crime is down in most major cities – including Washington, DC – in spite of Donald Trump, not because of him. If Trump actually cared about reducing crime, he wouldn’t have made unprecedented cuts to public safety programs that actually work. If Trump actually cared about our communities, he would be working with our cities, not against them. But the truth is Trump doesn’t care – he only wants to create yet another political charade to serve his own interests and distract Americans from his failures. While Trump may try to vilify Mayors and take credit for their work, Democratic Mayors will never stop fighting to protect and strengthen our communities because that’s what they do – they get things done.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has invited Donald Trump to join emergency virtual talks with EU leaders and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, as European demands grow that the US president agree red lines before Friday’s summit in Alaska with Vladimir Putin.

Neither Zelenskyy nor European leaders have been invited to Trump’s meeting with the Russian president.

Merz’s office said in a statement that the virtual talks would focus on “further options for action to put pressure on Russia” and “preparations for possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security”.

It is not clear whether or not Trump has accepted the invitation to the call.

There was another once unthinkable spectacle when Jeanine Pirro, a controversial former Fox News host, stood behind the lectern bearing the presidential seal.

Now the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Pirro told reporters:

We need to recognise that the people who matter are the law-abiding citizens – and it starts today ... President Trump is going to make sure these emboldened criminals understand: we see you, we’re watching you, and we’re going to change the law to catch you.

Pirro, a longtime personal friend of Donald Trump, added:

We need to go after the DC council and their absurd laws.

Photos: people protest against the deployment of the national guard in DC on Monday

The president said earlier that “the number of carjackings has more than tripled, murders in 2023 reached the highest rate – probably ever.”

A quick fact check and some important context here. According to the non-partisan Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), the number of carjackings in DC did peak in June 2023. Their data comes from the DC Metropolitan police department.

But when you compare June 2023 to June 2025, carjackings actually fell by 75 %.

And on homicides, the city did experience a peak in August 2023, but that has fallen by 65% compared to June of this year.

Overall, the homicide rate in DC fell by 19% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, according to CCJ.

Now, on the subject of Trump’s upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the president confirms that Volodomyr Zelenskyy will not be part of Friday’s summit.

He adds “we’re going to see what he [Putin] has in mind,” and then will call Zelenskyy first “out of respect” if it’s a fair deal. He says that afterwards he’ll inform European Union leaders and Nato.

He goes on to say that there is a world where the US and Russia can be trading partners down the line, or if Friday’s meeting goes well.

“Russia has a very valuable piece of land, if Vladimir Putin would go toward business instead of toward war,” he says.

In response to a question about how personal the issue of crime and homelessness is to the president, Donald Trump says that he wants leaders or dignitaries to come through the capital “beautifully”. He adds, “if our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don’t respect us”.

Donald Trump made an embarrassing gaffe earlier, when he previewed his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

He told reporters: “I’m going to see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday.”

Alaska has not been part of Russia since 1867, when it was sold to the US for $7.2m. Trump has long been criticised for failing to take a tough stance against Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

In his press conference, where reporters are squeezed into both aisles, Donald Trump continued: “I don’t like being up here talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful Capital was.”

He continued: “We’re declaring a public safety emergency in the District of Columbia and attorney general Pam Bondi is taking command of the Metropolitan police department as of this moment.

“They’ll immediately begin massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street.”

Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, walked to the lectern and told reporters: “This morning, we’ve mobilised the DC national guard … You will see them flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week.”

Kash Patel, the director of the FBI added: “We’re going to clean up Washington DC. We’re going to do it the right way, the lawful way. We’ll make sure Washington DC is safe again.”

DC attorney general Jeanine Pirro – who was only confirmed to her role on 2 August – says that she sees “too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else”.

Pirro expresses her frustration with, what she sees as, excessive leniency when it comes to the way juveniles are prosecuted. “I can’t arrest them. I can’t prosecute them,” she says. “They go to family court, and they get to do yoga and arts and crafts. Enough, it changes today.”

A block away from the White House, about 200 protesters gathered before his press conference to condemn Donald Trump’s plans to deploy federal law enforcement in Washington DC.

“I’m here this morning to say that nothing Trump is doing right now is about our safety,” said Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, a group that advocates for the district’s rights.

She criticised the president’s support for cutting Medicaid, firing federal workers and rounding up undocumented immigrants, and argued that his concerns about crime are insincere.

“Trump does not care about DC safety. He cares about control,” she said.

Chatterjee later informed the crowd of Trump’s plans to federalize Washington DC’s police department and deploy the national guard.

They broke into boos and shouts of “shame”. Right now they’re singing a song that goes:

DC is our home, you can’t have it, Trump.

Secretary of defense Pete Hegseth is now speaking about the deployment of the DC National Guard:

We will work alongside all DC police and federal law enforcement to ensure this city is safe. This city is beautiful, and as I always say about President Trump, to the troops, he has their back. And my message to the National Guard and federal law enforcement in Washington is we have your back as well. Be tough. Be strong. We’re right behind you.

The president is saying that DC’s no cash bail policy is “a disaster”.

“We’re going to change the statute and get rid of some of the other things, and we’ll count on the Republicans in Congress and Senate to vote,” Trump vowed. “Cashless bail, watch what we do with that.”

The president is now vowing to “get rid of the slums” in the nation’s capital. “We have slums here. We’re getting rid of them. I know it’s not politically correct. You’ll say, ‘Oh, so terrible’.”

Donald Trump is now showing a number of charts, and the sources are unclear as of now, that show DC’s crime rate to be worse than a number of cities across the world, including Baghdad, Panama City, Brasília and Bogotá.

The president says:

Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs, and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen any more.

As we wait for the president to begin his press conference, we’re seeing images and video from local news outlets who report that hundreds of people have gathered in Lafayette Square – which sits just north of the White House – to protest the president’s plans for DC.

Four days after JD Vance reportedly asked top Trump administration officials to come up with a new communications strategy for dealing with the scandal around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he appears to have put his foot in it, sparking a new round of online outrage even as he tried to defuse the furor.

In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, the vice-president tried to deflect criticism of the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files by blaming Democrats. He accused Joe Biden of doing “absolutely nothing” about the scandal when he was in the White House.

“And now President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years,” he said.

If Vance’s attempt to switch public blame on to Democrats was the big idea to emerge from his strategy meeting with attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel, which according to CNN he convened at the White House last week, then their labours appear to have backfired. (Vance denied to Fox that they had discussed Epstein at all, though he did acknowledge the meeting took place.)

Within minutes of the Fox News interview being broadcast, social media began to hum with renewed cries of “release the files!”

Read more on the fallout here:

In an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, DC’s mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, pushed back against the president’s persistent claims on social media that the capital is inundated with violent crime.

“It is true we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023, this is 2025,” Bowser said.

“I suspect that his announcement is that he is surging federal law enforcement and he may talk about even larger numbers or longer periods of time,” Bowser added. But she expressed concern about the use of the national guard in DC. “I’m concerned about them not being used efficiently, and I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our guard,” she said.

Bowser also took aim at Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller – who called DC “more violent than Baghdad” last week.

“Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false,” she said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed “core” to the system’s ability to function and “without which mission-critical work cannot be completed”, agency records show.

The number of medical staff on hand to treat veterans has fallen every month since Donald Trump took office. The VA has experienced a net loss of 2,000 registered nurses since the start of this fiscal year, the data shows, along with approximately 1,300 medical assistants, 1,100 nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses, 800 doctors, 500 social workers and 150 psychologists.

The numbers are at odds with claims by the VA secretary, Doug Collins, that veterans’ healthcare would not be affected by an agency-wide reduction of 30,000 workers to be completed this year through a combination of attrition, a hiring freeze and deferred resignation program.

The reduction in medical staff is also feeding fears that the Trump administration is seeking to transform the VA, which currently operates the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, into a private voucher program.

“It’s a betrayal,” said Manuel Santamaria, 42, a disabled veteran who served as a US army medic and paratrooper in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It takes away the government’s accountability to veterans who have sacrificed for them.”

The VA said in a statement to the Guardian that the fear of privatization “is a far-left canard” and that “anyone who says VA is cutting health care and benefits is not being honest”.

Villagers whose farms in Vietnam will be bulldozed to make way for a $1.5bn golf resort backed by the Trump family have reportedly been offered rice provisions and cash compensation of as little as $12 for a square metre of land by state authorities.

Thousands of villagers will be offered compensation based on land size and location, according to a report by Reuters. The agency spoke to elderly farmers who said they feared they would struggle to find a stable livelihood.

The sprawling golf resort, the first project by the Trump Organization in Vietnam, broke ground as the country scrambled to reach a crucial trade deal with the US.

Vietnam, which is heavily dependent on exports, was facing the threat of a 46% tariff in April, which has since been reduced to 20% for many goods.

Vietnam’s prime minister said the project played an important role in deepening the country’s relationship with the US and that villagers would be reimbursed. Pham Minh Chinh added that he hoped the development would create jobs and improve livelihoods.

The project will include a 54-hole VIP golf course, luxury resorts, high-end villas and a modern urban complex, according to state media. Reactions among local people have been mixed, with many farmers suggesting the compensation rates are too low.

The Trump administration’s immigration policies are affecting workers and driving, in part, a decline in tourism, including international tourists, to Las Vegas, according to workers and the largest labor union in the state of Nevada.

Visitors to Las Vegas overall dropped 11.3% in June 2025, compared to the same month last year. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, international visitors to one of the world’s largest tourist destinations dropped 13% in June.

“A lot of departments are having a lot of layoffs,” said ​​Norma Torres, a housekeeper for eight years at Mandalay Bay and a member of the Culinary Union, who has worked in the hospitality industry since she was 18 years old. “In the housekeeping department, the people on call are barely called into work.”

Canada is Nevada’s largest international market. Flair Airlines, a Canadian airline, reported a 55% drop in passengers compared to last year. Air Canada reported a 13.2% drop in passengers from May to June this year to Las Vegas, and one third lower compared to last year.

Trump administration officials have reportedly pushed for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to arrest 3,000 people a day as part of their anti-immigration agenda. They have subsequently denied that those quotas exist. But they have continued to revoke immigration statuses, delayed action for childhood arrivals, and other humanitarian immigration programs.

“If you tell the rest of the world you’re not welcome, they are going to listen. Our members are telling us that they’re quite nervous, and that’s why they’re calling it a Trump slump,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary treasurer of Culinary Workers Union Local 226.

But the Ice raids, trade wars with trading partners and fears that rising tariffs will hit the finances of potential visitors are all having an impact on Sin City tourism.

Nvidia and AMD have agreed to give the US government 15% of revenue from sales to China of advanced computer chips, a US official said on Sunday, in an unusual move likely to unsettle US companies.

President Donald Trump’s administration halted sales of H20 chips to China in April, but Nvidia announced last month that Washington had said it would allow the company to resume sales and it hoped to start deliveries soon.

Another US official said on Friday that the Commerce Department had begun issuing licenses for the sale of H20 artificial intelligence chips to China.

Poland’s prime minister said on Monday he felt a mixture of fear and hope ahead of a Russia-US summit on the war in Ukraine this week, but added that Washington had pledged to consult its European partners before the talks.

US president Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August, and Kyiv fears that the two leaders may try to dictate terms for ending the war.

“The American side has promised that it will consult with European partners on its position before the meeting in Alaska,” Donald Tusk told a news conference.

“I will wait... for the effects of the meeting between presidents Trump and Putin - I have many fears and a lot of hope.”

He said that Trump’s recent comments on the war in Ukraine could give the impression the US president was increasingly understanding Ukrainian and European arguments regarding the conflict, but that he was not 100% sure that this position would be lasting.

French, Italian, German, Polish, British, Finnish and European Commission leaders on Saturday welcomed Trump’s efforts to try to end the war, but emphasised the need to pressure Russia and provide security guarantees for Kyiv.