National Guard troops arrive at the District of Columbia National Guard Headquarters, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
WASHINGTON – Some of the 800 National Guard members deployed by President Donald Trump began arriving in the nation’s capital on Tuesday, ramping up after the White House ordered federal forces to take over the city’s police department and reduce crime in what the president called — without substantiation — a lawless city.
The influx came the morning after Trump announced he would be activating the guard members and taking over the department. He cited a crime emergency — but referred to the same crime that city officials stress is already falling noticeably. The president holds the legal right to make such moves — to a point.
The law lets Trump control the police department for a month, but how aggressive the federal presence will be and how it could play out remained open questions as the city’s mayor and police chief went to the Justice Department to meet with the attorney general.
The meeting comes a day after Mayor Muriel Bowser said Trump’s freshly announced plan to take over the Metropolitan Police Department and call in the National Guard was not a productive step. She calmly laid out the city’s case that crime has been dropping steadily and said Trump’s perceived state of emergency simply doesn’t match the numbers.
She also flatly stated that the capital city’s hands are tied and that her administration has little choice but to comply. “We could contest that,” she said of Trump’s definition of a crime emergency, “but his authority is pretty broad.”
Bowser made a reference to Trump’s “so-called emergency” and concluded: “I’m going to work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster.”
