WASHINGTON –ย ย President Donald Trumpย said Monday heโs placing the Washington, D.C., police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to make the nationโs capital safer.
Trump has promised new steps to tackleย homelessness and crime in Washington, prompting the city’s mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets.
Ahead of a news conference, Trump said Monday on social media that the nation’s capital would be โLIBERATED today!โ He said he would end the โdays of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people.โ
For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step inย his law enforcement agendaย after his aggressive push to stopย illegal border crossings. But the move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials, raising fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts.
Combating crime
The president has used his social media and White House megaphones to message that his administration is tough on crime, yet his ability to shape policy might be limited outside of Washington, which has a unique status as a congressionally established federal district. Nor is it clear how his push would address the root causes of homelessness and crime.
About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nationโs capital as part of the Trump administrationโs effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday.
More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are also contributing officers.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didnโt immediately have a comment Monday morning.
Focusing on homelessness
Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go.
โThe Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,โ Trump wrote Sunday. โWe will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you donโt have to move out. Weโre going to put you in jail where you belong.โ
Last week, the Republican presidentย directed federal law enforcement agenciesย to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option โto extend as needed.โ
On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service assigned more thanย 120 officers and agentsย to assist in Washington.
Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was โridiculousโ and the city was โunsafe,โ afterย the recent assaultย of a high-profile member ofย the Department of Government Efficiency.
The National Guard
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of using the Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.
Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon.
โI just think thatโs not the most efficient use of our Guard,โ she said Sunday on MSNBC’s โThe Weekend,โ acknowledging it is “the presidentโs call about how to deploy the Guard.โ
Bowser was making her first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased sinceย a rise in 2023. Trump’s weekend posts depicted the district as โone of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.”
For Bowser, โAny comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.โ
Crime statistics
Police statisticsย show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.
Trump offered no details in Truth Social posts over the weekend about possible new actions to address crime levels he argues are dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers alike. The White House declined to offer additional details about Monday’s announcement.
The police department and the mayorโs office did not respond to questions about what Trump might do next.
The president criticized the district as full of โtents, squalor, filth, and Crime,โ and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others.
โThis has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,โ Trump said Wednesday.
He called Bowser โa good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.โ
Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would requireย a repeal of the Home Rule Actย of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining. It could face steep pushback.
Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city’s police, but only if certain conditions are met.
โNone of those conditions exist in our city right now,” she said. โWe are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, weโre watching our crime numbers go down.โ
