President Donald Trump has moved to place the police department of Washington, D.C., under federal command for at least 30 days and dispatched the National Guard to patrol the capital’s streets.
Trump insisted the step was necessary to crack down on violent street crime, which he has said is “out of control” since a former DOGE employee was assaulted by muggers in an attempted carjacking.
Flanked by members of his Cabinet at a White House press conference called to introduce the measures on Monday, the president declared that it was “Liberation Day” for Washington, pledging to “rescue” the city from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”
But his decision has been met with a perplexed reaction, given that it comes just months after Trump’s own Justice Department issued a press release touting Washington’s declining crime rate.
His opponents have been quick to accuse the president of seeking a distraction from the ongoing pressure he faces to release the government’s files on the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
This is the second time Trump has federalized the National Guard this summer, following his decision to send the troops into Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE protests in June, a manoeuvre that risked inflaming local tensions and which delivered a knock to his approval ratings.
What has Trump said?
“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 anymore,” the president said during Monday’s press event, comparing the state of play in Washington to the country’s southern border with Mexico.
“It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness,” Trump said, adding that his administration would be “getting rid of the slums” and tackling what he called the “caravans of mass youth,” who, he claimed, “rampage through city streets at all times of the day.”
In a series of posts on Truth Social leading up to the press conference, the president had used similarly dystopian language and said of the seat of American democracy: “It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World. It will soon be one of the safest!!!”
He also ordered the city’s homeless population to “move out, IMMEDIATELY.”
“We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,” he told them. “The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”
What is happening in D.C.?
The president has invoked a previously unused section of the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act to provide a “crisis” basis for seizing control of local law enforcement, placing the responsibility for its management with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“You’ll have more police, and you’ll be so happy because you’ll be safe when you walk down the street,” Trump promised.
“You’re going to see police, or you’re going to see FBI agents. Going to have a lot of agents on the street. You’re going to have a lot of essentially military, and we will bring in the military if it’s needed.”
Members of the National Guard duly hit the streets on Monday night, accompanied by the FBI and DEA officers, to support local police in maintaining order.
The White House has already claimed that the multi-agency effort, which it has dubbed “Operation Making D.C. Safe & Beautiful,” netted at least 37 arrests on its first night, yielding four narcotics charges and the seizure of 11 illegal guns.
What do the stats say?
Although Washington’s murder rate hit levels not seen since the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s just two years ago, the period since has seen a steep decline under the leadership of Chief Pamela Smith, who was named to her role in 2023 after two years leading the U.S. Park Police.
Statistics made public by the D.C. government and the Department of Justice show other violent crimes having declined during the same period.
Crime figures from the Metropolitan Police Department for the District of Columbia state that violent offenses have fallen steadily from their recent peak in 2023, last year hit their lowest level in 30 years and have continued to decline in 2025, according to preliminary data for the first half of the year.
Violent crime overall is down 26 percent year-on-year for the first eight months of 2025, according to the MPDC, while robbery specifically is down 28 percent for the same period.
Homicides were up to 40 for every 100,000 people in 2023, a 20-year high but still well below 1990s levels, but has since fallen in 2024 and continued to decline so far this year.
Trump claimed at his press conference that “murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever,” an assertion that, when challenged, the White House said was based on “numbers provided by the FBI.”
What happens now?
Trump is likely to continue to face ongoing criticism over the actions, particularly if it leads to clashes with protesters concerned about creeping authoritarianism from his administration.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called his move “unsettling and unprecedented” but said she was unsurprised given his rhetoric towards the city over the years.
The mayor also conceded that she and the city council lack grounds on which to contest the takeover and suggested that more officers on the streets could be a good thing.
“We follow the law... the [Metropolitan Police Department] follows the law as well, as well as all of the federal officials who are here. The fact that we have more law enforcement presence in neighborhoods, that may be positive.”
Other critics speaking out so far have included the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said it amounted to the “ultimate affront to justice and civil rights” and was “disgusting, dangerous, and derogatory,” and Free DC executive director Keya Chatterjee, who said the move was not about crime prevention but rather about silencing dissent.
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