DC Residents React To National Guard Mobilization As Crime Rate Falls

Buzz Feed

5 hours ago

DC has been stretched thin this year, first staring down a potential $1.1 billion cut to its local budget — which Congress ultimately reversed with the backing of both city leaders and President Trump — and then absorbing a very real $20 million slash in federal security funding, a 44% cut in FEMA's urban grant program. Now, Trump has signed an executive order to place the city under a federally controlled "Safe and Beautiful Task Force," raising fresh questions about federal overreach into local governance.
On August 11, he invoked the District's unique federal status to seize control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilize 800 National Guard troops — a force that has since swelled past 1,500 with reinforcements from Republican-led states like Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia. While Trump framed the decision as a response to "totally out of control" crime, the numbers tell a different story: violent crime in DC is actually at a 30-year low.
Legally, the maneuver lives in a gray space. Unlike in states, where governors control the National Guard, DC's lack of statehood allows the president to deploy local troops with little resistance, citing "emergency" powers that can last up to 30 days unless extended by Congress. Critics warn that conflating routine urban challenges like crime, homelessness, and public safety with a so-called "emergency" risks not only mischaracterizing the District's needs, but also normalizing the use of military or federal force against civilians — a violation of the 19th-century Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from acting as domestic police unless explicitly authorized by Congress.
For DC locals, the reaction has been swift and visceral. Residents point out that Trump has simultaneously undercut the city's budget, ignored its actual needs, and now parachuted in soldiers to patrol some of its wealthiest neighborhoods. To many, it looks less like a crime crackdown and more like a test run to normalize military presence in a liberal stronghold — laying the groundwork for heavier crackdowns on dissent down the line. Here's what people in the District are saying:
"If he cared about violence in the city, he wouldn't have signed off on a cut to our budget. The only thing he cares about is control."
"It feels like trying to put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. You can't gut funding for the stuff that actually prevents violence, and then act shocked when things get worse. Short-term control isn't the same as long-term safety. I'm curious as to what people think would make the biggest difference here, because it sure isn't just more boots on the ground."
"The thing is, crime is WAY down in DC. This isn't about crime. It's a test run and a way to set a precedent to get people used to the idea. So when the social uproar over Trump's policies finally reaches a boiling point, he can say, 'Look, we've done it before. It's totally legal.' It's a precursor to putting down the inevitable dissent that will come once his policies finally start working their way through everyday life."
"DC native here. He must have a lot of pages in the Epstein files to be making this much noise. Every time that pig opens his mouth, I want to scream, especially when he's got my city in it."
"Your question is flawed because this isn't to address violence — violence is at a 30-year low. Sending in federal troops for law enforcement is also explicitly illegal for the president to do."
"If it's anything like LA, they'll stand around doing nothing, stay at hotels that will draw protests, or sleep on the floor somewhere. They'll also do one or two 'crackdowns' in a safe area where they won't get pushback and can create a performative soundbite, and a 'crackdown' that's completely unorganized and wastes everyone's time and money. Then, they'll eventually leave because they are ineffective and Trump has moved on to something else."
"The idea is to start normalizing the notion of using the military to do police work. One day, it's completely unheard of and taboo to send the military to detain civilians. Before you know it, it's just another Wednesday. It's the boiling frog analogy. To put it into perspective, think of how normal Trump's first term seems compared to his current term. Remember how the big controversy then was whether Trump was racist or not? The Charlottesville and George Floyd stuff? Now, we're having conversations about how fascist is he, and whether he'll leave office, rig elections for one-party GOP rule, use military force to occupy Democratic cities, start arresting Democratic politicians just because, his tariffs will cause a depression, he's done long-term damage to our relationships with international partners, the dollar will remain the world reserve currency, the US will be in another war by the end of his term, etc."
"Lots of them standing around doing nothing so far."
"By the way, sending the army into domestic cities was also illegal in ancient Rome. When Caesar sent the army over the Rubicon River (the phrase 'Cross the Rubicon'), across the border into the city, it was basically the end of Roman democracy and the beginning of the Roman Empire."
"The last time there was 'mass violence' on the streets of DC was January 6, 2021."
"I don't think this is just a distraction. It's also a distraction, but he always intended to put troops in the street. Next year, it will be the Gestapo."
"So far, the shit I've seen is mostly from the video of some wealthy preppy-looking dude slapping a cop with a sub sandwich and leisurely running away."
"My take is that it's not to address violence but the unhoused population. It's disgusting. My understanding is that Trump plans to federalize the Metropolitan PD, too. The 'sweeping' of the unhoused population started happening more drastically a few months ago."
"The National Guard has little to no training on how to deal with homelessness, mental illnesses, addiction, and poverty. That's not what they know, have been trained for, or have any experience in doing. It's a big mistake on so many levels in terms of the public and use of federal workers."
"It's not a mistake. My $5 says it's intentional. They send in soldiers who don't have training to deal with the perceived problem in any way other than how soldiers are trained to act — aggressively. The goal is to provoke incidents of retaliatory violence against the soldiers in order to justify full military lockdown of the city and/or mass incarcerations of protesters, the unhoused, dissenting politicians, and media, etc."
"It's easy. It's a loyalty test to see just how Gestapo the National Guard can get before there is dissent. The DC Home Rule Act, Section 740, which he is using to mobilize the National Guard and federalize the police force, allows for this action during a declared federal emergency in DC for up to 48 hours, unless Congress votes to extend it, with a maximum limit of 30 days."
"I've run a community cleanup organization in the District since 2021 — more on that in a minute. Every month, we hold a cleanup somewhere in the District in a new location. It moves from neighborhood to neighborhood. We go to ALL of the neighborhoods. I'd offer that I've spent more time in every rough part of DC than anyone involved in making this decision has. I started my organization after an impromptu cleanup of the National Mall area in front of the Capitol building on January 9, 2021, in response to what happened three days prior. It wasn't overtly a political thing — I was just tired of my city being littered by a bunch of clowns who see it as a stage for their nonsense. Since then, we've had dozens of cleanups with thousands of volunteers. We know what it looks like when the trash comes into town. And, like always, we'll be here when it's time to take out the trash. Bet on it."
"No one wants it. DC has problems, but they're just normal for a city. Crime is at a 30-year low. They're just testing out fascism. Also, Trump doesn't like the city because the city actively doesn't like him. He's a petty man who enjoys making people suffer if he feels they didn't compliment the size of his hands enough."
"Federal troops going to hot zones isn't new. But this isn't a hot zone. There aren't riots in the streets. Violence in DC is at a 30-year low. This is just federal agents arresting unhoused people for being unhoused. I also feel obligated to mention that people experiencing homelessness is a macro problem with micro solutions. Soup kitchens aren't going to 'solve' it. We would be far better off reforming our healthcare industry if that is our real goal (the majority of people experiencing homelessness are doing so because of medical debt). That doesn't mean that soup kitchens are wrong — just that their goal is different from solving the main problem. Arresting people experiencing homelessness also does not 'solve' it. It costs $150k per year to jail someone. It would be cheaper for us to buy every person experiencing homelessness a house than it would be to arrest them all (moral arguments aside)."
"Per my buddy in DC this morning: Unhoused encampments ARE a real problem. We need to get these people with mental illness off the streets because they do create real issues for residents. But that should be done by giving resources to existing DC agencies, not by using federal troops. This is just a pretext for martial law."
"They're out patrolling the safest, whitest, and richest neighborhoods in DC. The Wharf, DuPont Circle, Navy Yard — all the most gentrified places in the city. One thousand bucks says they never go east of the river. It's a joke and a distraction from the Epstein List."
"It's nonsense and performative. It is NOT dangerous here, and Trump has never cared about law and order. That being said, Trump is good at parroting things that he knows a fringe group of people — some of whom don't even live here — believe. It also aligns with his talking points that all big liberal cities are shitholes. The reality is that he knows DC didn't and would never elect somebody like him."
"It's too soon to say. I'm out around town this evening, and it's oddly quiet. There are fewer police than usual. Only local cops were protecting a small anti-Trump protest. Maybe this is the calm before the storm? I'm used to seeing cops all over since I live in the Navy Yard near a lot of congresspeople. Summer 2020 seemed much more severe with Humvees on Pennsylvania Avenue. It's insulting altogether, given the fact that he refused to put down January 6. I witnessed it, and it was truly astonishing. Most people don't realize that Trump didn't do anything — the military came in under Pence's orders. If it wasn't for Pence, things would have been far worse that day."
In the end, whether you see Trump's move as a necessary intervention or an alarming overreach, it raises a deeper question: what precedent will this set for the future of federal authority in American cities? So, what do you think — is this a legitimate response to crime, or a dangerous expansion of federal control? Share your thoughts in the comments below.