What to expect under Trump’s federal takeover of D.C.
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Trump’s takeover of the DC police sets off a scramble across the city
The move marks a dramatic escalation in tensions between Trump and DC officials. The White House expects to keep control of the police force for all 30 days, though that could change. The National Guard troops will focus on protecting federal assets within the city. The move represents the first time a president has exercised his authority to federalize the police for up to 30 days under DC’s 1973 Home Rule Act, which says it can be done only under the “special conditions of an emergency.’’ “This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city’s local leadership,” Trump said during a press briefing announcing the takeover. “We’re going to do it right. We’ll get it done quickly.” “If this city doesn’t have a better reputation for safety and beauty and cleanliness, we’m not going to get the visitors,’ Trump said in a private remarks. ‘This city is not ready for our 250th anniversary’
President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington, DC, police set off a scramble across the city Monday, as the federal government made an unprecedented move to control local law enforcement operations in the nation’s capital.
The decision to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department and activate hundreds of National Guard troops came as Trump painted a dystopian portrait of DC that allies say is shaped by the president’s frustration with anecdotal reports of crime and homelessness. The city’s statistics show a sustained, multiyear decline in violent offenses, though public perceptions of crime are often out of step with data.
It marks a dramatic escalation in tensions between Trump and DC officials, who had sought for months to maintain a delicate peace with the White House. And in the immediate aftermath, it appeared to set the stage for the city itself to once again become a major partisan flashpoint.
“This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city’s local leadership,” Trump said during a press briefing announcing the takeover. “We’re going to do it right. We’re going to get it done quickly.”
The move represents the first time a president has exercised his authority to federalize the police for up to 30 days under DC’s 1973 Home Rule Act, which says it can be done only under the “special conditions of an emergency.” Yet the decision to declare such an emergency came so abruptly that aides on Monday were still finalizing how long they planned to control the police — and what exactly they would direct them to do.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on August 11. Alex Brandon/AP
The Trump administration had worked quietly alongside city officials for months to crack down on crime and promote “beautification” in DC, in keeping with an executive order that the president signed in March. The two sides had carved out what aides to both Trump and Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser described as a productive relationship.
But in recent days, Trump was spurred to go further amid high-profile incidents of violent crime — most notably the assault last week of a former Department of Government Efficiency employee — and his own observations of homeless encampments and roadside debris, some photos of which he posted on Truth Social over the weekend, a White House official said.
The White House expects to keep control of the police force for all 30 days, though the official cautioned that could change. The National Guard troops will focus on protecting federal assets within the city, while also protecting law enforcement officers making arrests.
Trump has long focused on crime and cleanliness in DC and other cities, sparring periodically with Democratic mayors during his first term over law enforcement. In the summer of 2020, he weighed a federal takeover of the DC police to quell demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd.
That has intensified since his return to office, in the wake of campaign trail vows to impose law and order — and, some allies said, as Trump plans for the city to host the US’ 250th anniversary celebration next year. Trump has repeatedly marveled that he’ll get to preside over the landmark event.
“Over and over again, he has said that this city is not ready for our 250th anniversary,” said one person close to the White House, granted anonymity to characterize Trump’s private remarks. “If this city doesn’t have a better reputation for safety and beauty and cleanliness, we’re not going to get the visitors — we’re just not.”
Trump administration officials offered few specifics on what the law enforcement ramp-up would look like, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying during Monday’s press briefing only that crime in DC would be “ending” on her watch. And while other officials compared the effort to a prior partnership with Virginia state officials to crack down on crime, the administration in this case made clear it was stepping in with or without local leaders’ consent.
Instead, city leaders including Bowser and Police Chief Pamela Smith were blindsided by Trump’s announcement, the mayor acknowledged on Monday. Brian Schwalb, the DC attorney general who is elected independently from the mayor, immediately slammed the takeover as “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.”
“There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia,” he said in a statement that noted violent crime reached three-decade lows in 2024 and is trending downward again this year. “We are considering all of our options and will do what’s necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents.”
Bowser stopped short of directly criticizing the White House during a press conference, but called the administration’s move “unsettling and unprecedented.” The White House had left her with the impression over the weekend only that it planned to activate the National Guard, rather than taking the arguably more dramatic step of exerting control over the city’s police force.
“You’re familiar with the rhetoric about this city and how long it goes back,” Bowser said of Trump’s criticism of DC. “We also know that we’re not experiencing a spike in crime, but a decrease in crime.”
FBI and Border Patrol officers walk along the U Street corridor as part of a federal law enforcement deployment to the nation’s capital on August 10 in Washington, DC. Andrew Leyden/Getty Images
Trump officials were due to meet with Smith later Monday to discuss the specifics of the federal involvement in policing, which DC officials sought to portray more as closer cooperation rather than an outright seizure of power. Bowser said she’d pledged to work with Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed US attorney for DC, on tightening certain laws in the wake of her complaints about juvenile crime in the city.
But other Democrats in DC and elsewhere cast the move as an extraordinary power grab, even as they debated how forcefully to respond to an action that some saw as an attempt to distract more from troublesome issues facing the White House. Those include the blowback the administration is facing over its handling of the files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as fresh signs that the economy is slowing.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the takeover as “a political ploy and attempted distraction from Trump’s other scandals.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, drew direct parallels to Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles in June.
“He was just getting warmed up in Los Angeles,” Newsom wrote on X. “This is what dictators do.”
Pressed Monday on the broader implications of Trump’s involvement in DC’s policing, Bowser took a more circumspect approach.
“I’m going to work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster,” she said.
Trump deploys National Guard to Washington DC: What does the law say on this?
Donald Trump took unprecedented steps on Monday, deploying the National Guard and seizing control of the police force in Washington, DC. The reason: he wants to ‘rescue the capital from crime and bloodshed’ But experts note that his move to federalise the police is allowed within limits. Most analysts note that there’s there is “no crime emergency” that would justify the president’s actions. Local data reveals violent crime has decreased in recent years after a crime wave in 2023, which authorities described as a post-pandemic spike. In June, Trump had deployed National Guard troops to the capital for the first time in his first term. In January, the Department of Justice in January said violent crime was down 35 per cent on the previous year, and had hit a 30-year low. The National Guard is only a military reserve force within the United States Armed Forces, reports the US Armed Forces. The president does not have the power to call in the Guard in their states, but the mayor needs federalisation to do so.
A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest near the White House, as US President Donald Trump announced he is placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deploying National Guard troops to Washington, DC. Reuters
Almost a week ago, US President Donald Trump had threatened a federal takeover of the country’s capital, Washington DC, after a prominent employee of Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) was beaten up in an attempted carjacking.
On Monday (August 11), he turned his threat into reality as he deployed the National Guard to the capital and took control of the city’s police force as he pledged to crack down on crime and homelessness in the city.
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“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” Trump said during a news conference in which he was flanked by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will lead the city’s police force while it is under federal control.
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“This is liberation day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back,” he said.
But what does all this mean? Why has Trump moved in the National Guard to Washington, DC? What happens now? And why is Trump’s move unprecedented?
What did Trump announce?
On Monday, Trump declared a “public safety emergency” and deployed 800 National Guard troops in the nation’s capital. He also announced that the federal government would also seize control of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.
In explaining his move, the US president said, “it’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness”, adding that his actions would “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse”.
He pointed out that Washington DC had been “taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals” as well as “drugged out maniacs and homeless people”.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference to discuss crime in Washington, DC, in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington. AFP
Is Trump’s takeover of the police legal?
Trump’s announcement has raised many eyebrows with some asking if he’s permitted by law to do so.
But experts note that his move to federalise the police is allowed within limits. The Home Rule Act of 1973 allows the president to take control of the city’s police for 48 hours if he “determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist,” which requires the department’s use for federal purposes.
The president can retain control of the department for a longer period if he notifies the chairs and ranking members of the congressional committees that handle legislative matters pertaining to DC, which Trump indicated he intends to do. Any request of control over the city’s police department for more than 30 days must be passed into law.
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However, herein lies the issue. Most analysts note that there’s there is “no crime emergency” that would justify the president’s actions. In fact, crime in Washington, DC is at a low. Local data reveals violent crime has decreased in recent years after a crime wave in 2023, which authorities described as a post-pandemic spike.
Moreover, the Department of Justice in January said violent crime was down 35 per cent on the previous year, and had hit a 30-year low.
What about Trump’s deployment of the National Guard?
Trump is authorised to deploy the National Guard and it is reminiscent of what he did in Los Angeles back in June. In fact, the National Guard, a military reserve force within the United States Armed Forces, reports only to the president. Governors have the power to call in the Guard in their states, but the DC mayor needs federal authorisation to do so because of DC’s status without statehood.
Historically, the National Guard has been called on by the president or governors to respond to domestic emergencies or participate in overseas combat and civilian missions — not to assist in routine crime-fighting.
This isn’t the first time that the National Guard is being brought into the capital. In his first term, Trump had deployed the troops in June 2020 to clear Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Park, across from the White House.
National Guard troops reinforce the security zone on Capitol Hill in Washington. File image/AP
What happens in Washington, DC now?
It seems that Trump’s decision came as a shock to the mayor and residents of Washington. In fact, Mayor Muriel Bowser called the president’s move “unsettling and unprecedented”.
She further disputed Trump’s justification for declaring a crime emergency, calling it a subjective “so-called emergency” and noting that the crime has been trending down in the city after spiking in 2023. “We’re not experiencing a spike in crime but a decrease in crime,” Bowser said.
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But what happens now?
According to a BBC report, of the 800 National Guard troops being deployed, 100-200 will be deployed and supporting law enforcement at any given time. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the National Guardsmen would arrive by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the Washington police is trying to figure out what their role will be after Trump’s announcement. As CNN reported, Trump’s announcement has led to confusion over who now leads the police, how their policing strategy will change and in what ways federal agents – many who aren’t trained for community policing – are going to interact with local officers.
Mayor Muriel Bowser also said that she was trying to hold a meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi on the same. But, she maintained that Chief of Police Pamela Smith would still run the department and report to Bowser up through the deputy mayor.
Law enforcement officials have said that it’s too early to tell what would be the full extent of Trump’s takeover, but for now it does mean more uniformed officials on the streets. Additionally, Trump has also called for the homeless to be evicted from the city and said that police will be “allowed to do whatever the hell they want,” raising the prospect of an increasingly unaccountable police presence in DC.
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Women display signs as people protest at Dupont Circle after US President Donald Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard to the nation’s capital and place DC’s Metropolitan Police Department under federal control, in Washington, DC. Reuters
What happens next?
Trump’s move has been slammed by Democrats and activists with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, saying the aim was to “further the personal and political agenda of a wannabe king”.
Richard Stengel, a former undersecretary of state in Barack Obama’s administration, wrote on X, “Throughout history, autocrats use a false pretext to impose government control over local law enforcement as a prelude to a more national takeover.”
“That’s far more dangerous than the situation he says he is fixing.”
And even as Trump was making his announcement, demonstrators gathered outside the White House, protesting the move. “There is absolutely no need for the National Guard here,” 62-year-old retiree Elizabeth Critchley, who brandished a sign with the slogan ‘DC says freedom not fascism’, to AFP.
There’s also bigger fears that Trump could replicate this move across different cities in the US. He, in fact, said that he planned to roll out the policy to other cities, spotlighting New York and Chicago.
With inputs from agencies
Trump Orders National Guard to Washington and Takeover of Capital’s Police
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Mr. Trump claimed on Monday. While the violent crime rate surged in 2023, it fell 35 percent from that year to 2024, according to the city’s Metropolitan Police Department. Violent crimes have declined from a peak of nearly 3,300 in the 2023 time span to fewer than 1,600 in 2025, lower than pre-pandemic levels. Local officials immediately criticized the president’s actions, and pockets of protesters sprang up around the city shortly after he declared a public safety emergency in Washington. The president is relying on the D.C. Home Rule Act, a law passed by Congress in 1973. The law gives the president the power to temporarily take the Metropolitan Police Dept. over for 30 days, a time limit outlined in the White House official said the takeover would last a time frame of 120 days.
President Trump on Monday took federal control of the police force in the nation’s capital for 30 days and mobilized 800 National Guard troops to fight crime in a city that he claimed was overrun with “bloodthirsty criminals,” even though crime numbers in Washington are falling.
During a 78-minute news conference, during which he was flanked by several members of his cabinet, Mr. Trump took the lectern in the White House briefing room and said he also intended to clear out the capital’s homeless population, without saying how officials would do it, or detailing where those people would go.
Armed with papers that showed crime statistics, Mr. Trump decried murders in Washington compared with other global cities but ignored the fact that violent crime has fallen recently in the nation’s capital. While the violent crime rate surged in 2023, it fell 35 percent from that year to 2024, according to the city’s Metropolitan Police Department.
Violent crimes in Washington, D.C. From January 1 through August 10 each year A chart shows the number of violent crimes in Washington, D.C. from January 1 to August 10 each year from 2010 to 2025. Violent crimes have declined from a peak of nearly 3,300 in the 2023 time span to fewer than 1,600 in 2025, lower than pre-pandemic levels. 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,584 violent crimes in 2025 so far 1,000 2011 ’13 ’15 ’17 ’19 ’21 ’23 ’25 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,584 violent crimes in 2025 so far 1,000 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025
Instead, Mr. Trump painted Washington as an urban hellscape, repurposing some of the incendiary language he has used to describe conditions at the southern border. Mr. Trump has railed against crime in urban, largely liberal cities for decades, but his announcement on Monday was an extraordinary exertion of federal power over an American city. Warning of “caravans of mass youth” rampaging the city streets and relaying stories of children caught in shootings, Mr. Trump blamed Democrats for allowing the crime.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Mr. Trump said. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore.”
Local officials immediately criticized the president’s actions, and pockets of protesters sprang up around the city shortly after Mr. Trump declared a public safety emergency in Washington. Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, said in a news conference on Monday afternoon that Mr. Trump’s actions were “unsettling and unprecedented,” but not surprising.
Image Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington called Mr. Trump’s actions on Monday “unsettling and unprecedented,” but not surprising. Credit… Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
“I can’t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past that we are totally surprised,” Ms. Bowser said, before adding that the police chief, Pamela A. Smith, would remain in her position. Ms. Bowser acknowledged that the law gave Mr. Trump the authority to take over the department temporarily. But she disputed the idea that her administration had done little to curb violent crime in Washington.
“There’s nobody here and certainly nobody who works for me who wants to tolerate any level of crime,” said Ms. Bowser, a Democrat. “We work every day to stop crime.”
There are practical questions about how Mr. Trump’s plans would be implemented. The Trump administration is relying on a provision of the D.C. Home Rule Act, a law passed by Congress in 1973 establishing local control of Washington. The law gives the president the power to temporarily take over the Metropolitan Police Department. A White House official said the takeover would last 30 days, a time limit outlined in the law.
Federal officials were still working out many of the operational details of the president’s plan on Monday afternoon, even though small groups of agents had been conducting limited patrols over the weekend.
The effort envisions about 500 federal law enforcement officers, drawn from a host of agencies that operate in Washington, to be used for some version of patrol or support roles of the local police, according to two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the still-developing plan.
That figure includes roughly 120 F.B.I. agents and about 50 deputy U.S. marshals, as well as agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, among other agencies.
Some of those agents will be on foot or car patrol duty, while others may be assigned to be visible in high-crime or high-traffic areas, according to the officials.
One complicating factor of using federal agents for essentially street-based police work is that those agents do not have the same authority as police officers to arrest people for minor criminal offenses, so the current view among Trump administration officials is that if federal agents see someone commit such a crime, they can stop and detain them until a local police officer arrives and makes an arrest.
None of those details were available during Mr. Trump’s briefing room appearance, during which he waxed on about his real estate experience, the “oceanfront property” in Ukraine and his coming trip to “Russia” — he is actually going to Alaska to meet with Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s president. He did not say where city police officers, federal police officers and National Guard members would be stationed throughout the city.
Mr. Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi would oversee the broad effort. He said that Gadyaces S. Serralta, who was sworn in as the director of the U.S. Marshals Service this month, would oversee the police department alongside Terry Cole, who was sworn in as the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration less than a month ago.
“I hope I don’t have to fire him in two weeks because he’s too soft,” Mr. Trump said after calling Mr. Serralta up to the briefing room lectern to shake his hand. “If you’re soft, weak and pathetic, like so many people, I will fire you so fast.”
Image Attorney General Pam Bondi at the White House on Monday. She is expected to oversee the broad federal law enforcement crackdown on Washington. Credit… Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Trump’s remarks seemed largely aimed at rewriting history and the reality of crime in Washington. Soon after he took office, Mr. Trump pardoned hundreds of rioters, some of them violent, who ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many had already been convicted of their crimes and were serving their sentences before being immediately released in January.
And in the summer of 2020, Mr. Trump deployed more than 5,000 National Guard troops to Washington to crack down on mostly peaceful demonstrators pushing for racial justice. That deployment was widely seen as a debacle.
One by one, Mr. Trump summoned members of his cabinet and others to the lectern to discuss how they would carry out his orders. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said U.S. Park Police officers had been patrolling federal parkland and traffic circles in the city for months, and had removed dozens of encampments of homeless people. And Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said 800 National Guard officers would be “flowing” into the city over the next week.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former Fox News personality, delivered a cable-ready monologue against laws in the District that prevent charging minors as adults.
“I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together and gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else,” Ms. Pirro said. “We need to go after the D.C. Council and their absurd laws.”
Mr. Trump and Ms. Pirro both denounced the use of no-cash bail in Chicago and in Washington, where it has been effectively eliminated since 1992. The practice allows some defendants to be released from jail without posting bail that would help ensure their return to court.
As he threatened to get involved with repealing no-cash bail in Chicago, Mr. Trump suggested that other cities would soon be subject to federal intervention, thought it is unclear what legal grounds he could use to exert federal control over them.
“I’m going to look at New York in a little while,” Mr. Trump said, “and if we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster.”
Critics of the administration’s efforts said Mr. Trump deserved part of the blame for crime in Washington. Ankit Jain, a shadow senator for the District of Columbia who is the capital’s advocate in Congress in lieu of official senators, said the vacancy crisis in the U.S. attorney’s office, which prosecutes all adult crimes, had contributed to crime in the city. He also said the city is down two judges out of nine on its highest court, the D.C. Court of Appeals.
“What happens when you don’t have enough judges? Trials get delayed, crime goes up,” he said. “Why has the president not made this a priority of nominating judges?”
Several Washington residents said on Monday that the crime statistics relayed by the president had unnerved them, though they did not see the kind of violence he described. Others questioned whether calling the National Guard to Washington was necessary.
“I’m not a particularly pro-police, pro-law enforcement kind of person,” said Sarah Struble, 37, who lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. “I would much rather resources go towards, you know, community support and services and things like that, things that our taxes support and things run by the community rather than bringing in the National Guard.”
Shanta Rigsby, 43, said crime had remained steady for the past five years in the Navy Yard neighborhood where she lives, with a noticeable rise after the pandemic. She said Mr. Trump should focus on addressing the root causes of crime before sending in the National Guard.
“It’s unfortunate that the new administration has to take this reactionary approach,” Ms. Rigsby said, “instead of local government really focusing on bringing down crime and making residents feel safe.”
Reporting was contributed by Devlin Barrett , Darren Sands , Sonia A. Rao , Campbell Robertson , Chris Cameron and Annie Karni .
The legality of Trump’s D.C. takeover as statistics show decline in crime
Steve Vladeck: I think we have to break out two pieces here. The first is the use of the National Guard. We have seen that before, including from this president. And it would be a very dangerous precedent if we started to see efforts to build on that in other parts of the country.
So, Amna, I think we have to break out two pieces here. So the first is the use of the National Guard. We have seen that before, including from this president, including both earlier this term in California and in D.C.
What’s really novel about what we’re seeing today is the use of the D.C. Police Department. This provision for the president to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department for up to 30 days, it was put into the Home Rule Act back in 1973, but it’s never been used.
And so I think part of what we’re really going to need to watch out for is, how exactly is the Metropolitan Police Department’s day-to-day work over the next days and weeks different from what it was doing over the first eight months of 2025? I mean, I think that’s part of the issue here.
And, again, I think the real key is for folks to not get desensitized to the radicalism of using federalized police, using federalized military authority for ordinary law enforcement contexts in a setting in which the facts don’t seem to support it.
Amna, that might be legal in the historically and constitutionally unique context of Washington, D.C. It doesn’t make it right. And it would be a very dangerous precedent if we started to see efforts to build on that in other parts of the country.
August 11, 2025: Trump announces federal takeover of DC police and mobilization of National Guard
Roughly 800 DC National Guard soldiers will provide administrative and logistical support, as well as physical support to law enforcement. Two US officials told CNN on Monday that operational details about the mobilization were still being worked through. The troops will be in a Title 32 status, meaning they are under local authority but being federally funded. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a news conference on Monday alongside Trump that the Guard would begin flowing into DC this week.
Roughly 800 DC National Guard soldiers will provide administrative and logistical support, as well as physical support to law enforcement, during their mobilization in Washington, DC, a statement today from the Army said.
“There will be about 800 Soldiers activated. During this activation, between 100-200 Soldiers will be supporting law enforcement at any given time,” the statement said. “Their duties will include an array of tasks from administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement.”
Two US officials told CNN on Monday that operational details about the mobilization were still being worked through — such as where the soldiers will physically be assigned, what their command-and-control will be, and more.
Given that only 100 to 200 soldiers will be on duty at any given time, one of the US officials said the other several hundred troops could be off duty at the DC National Guard armory, or even possibly sent home until the next shift given that many likely live locally.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a news conference on Monday alongside Trump that the Guard would begin flowing into DC this week.
Defense officials were given the green light to move forward with activating the National Guard personnel today, when President Donald Trump announced it. The troops will be in a Title 32 status, meaning they are under local authority but being federally funded. Troops in Title 32 status are also not subject to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits US service members from partaking in law enforcement activities.