Trump deploys National Guard to D.C. as he places city ‘under federal control'
Addressing reporters from the White House briefing room on Monday morning, Trump said he would invoke Section 740 of Washington's Home Rule Act allowing the president to take emergency control of D.C. police for 48 hours, which can then be extended to 30 days once Congress is notified. In doing so, the Metropolitan Police Department will be placed under federal control as Trump attempts to crack down on recent reports of juvenile crime.
'Something's out of control, but we're going to put it in control very quickly,' Trump said. 'You want to have safety in the streets. You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe in going to a store to buy a newspaper or buy something, and you don't have that now.'
Section 740 would allow Trump to use the MPD for federal purposes until the expiration of 'such emergency' or when Congress passes a law with a specific date, meaning lawmakers would need to authorize an extension past 30 days. Trump suggested that Congress, currently controlled by Republicans, would pass a law to strengthen federal statutes to crack down on crime while accusing Democrats of being 'weak on crime.'
The National Guard will be deployed to D.C. sometime within the next week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday.
Trump also announced that his administration would begin removing homeless people from their encampments across the city and taking them elsewhere, although it's not entirely clear where they will go.
'We're going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can't walk on, they'd be very, very dirty,' Trump said.
Several Republican lawmakers, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, have repeatedly threatened to take control of Washington, D.C., and place it completely under federal jurisdiction. Those calls were revamped last week after a prominent ex-member of the Department of Government Efficiency was assaulted by teenagers earlier this month.
Lee has used that assault to push for a vote on his BOWSER Act that would repeal Washington's self-governance.
'This attack on a young man who came to Washington to help fix America's government is simply the latest outrage in a series of assaults and murders that have made our nation's capital a national embarrassment,' Lee told the Deseret News in a statement last week. 'We should pass my BOWSER Act, which revokes DC Home Rule, as well as bills preventing the DC Council from avoiding accountability through secret meetings. I will be working with my GOP colleagues and President Trump on every avenue possible to restore a safe, clean Washington Americans can be proud of.'
Lee praised Trump's decision in a post on X, thanking the president for 'addressing the lawlessness in DC' and attaching the hashtag: #FederalizeDC.
Thank you, President Trump, for addressing the lawlessness in DC#FederalizeDC.
Utah Sen. John Curtis similarly approved the decision, telling the Deseret News in a statement that D.C. should 'be a place where every American feels safe and welcome.'
'Sadly, during my time in office, I've seen growing violence and a troubling decline in public safety for both my staff and visitors,' Curtis said. 'I'm hopeful that new measures will help restore safety, respect, and accountability — building a community where families can thrive and everyone can walk its streets without fear."
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old famously known for his role with DOGE, was attacked by a group of 10 juveniles in an attempted carjacking on Aug. 3, according to a D.C. police report obtained by the Deseret News. Police officers who observed the attack attempted to chase the juveniles and managed to arrest two 15-year-old suspects, both of whom reside in Maryland, according to police.
Trump posted about the attack on Tuesday, sharing a photo that showed a bloodied Coristine lying in the street, seemingly after the attack. The president decried the incident and called for a change in city law to charge minors as adults in cases of assault.
The latest threats highlight an ongoing challenge for D.C. officials, who have been working for months to crack down on rising rates of youth crime. Since the beginning of 2025, juveniles have made up more than 50% of arrests related to carjacking, according to D.C. police. A majority of those arrests are made up of teens who are 15 and 16 years old.
Trump specifically named the D.C. neighborhood of Navy Yard in his announcement to federalize D.C. law enforcement. The MPD announced on Sunday evening it would establish a juvenile curfew zone in Navy Yard this week as it continues to crack down on youth crime.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has acknowledged the recent trends, even going so far as to create a special police unit in April tasked with responding to juvenile crime.
Still, crime rates in the city overall have gone down over the last year, according to statistics from the MPD. Violent crime, for example, has decreased by 26% compared to this time last year.
Local lawmakers have pushed back against Republicans' efforts to take over D.C., accusing Trump of wanting to disenfranchise the city — instead calling for statehood for the district.
'Even if crime in D.C. weren't at a historic low point, President Trump's comments would be misguided and offensive to the more than 700,000 people who live permanently in the nation's capital,' Eleanor Norton, a nonvoting member who represents D.C. in Congress, said in a statement. 'D.C. residents, a majority of whom are Black and brown, are worthy and capable of governing themselves without interference from federal officials who are unaccountable to D.C.'
Democrats in Congress denounced Trump's move to federalize the D.C. police, calling it a ploy to distract from his policies and the ongoing drama surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.
'On January 6, rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol and assaulted the police while Trump stalled on calling the National Guard. Now, when a former DOGE staffer is assaulted, he suddenly scrambles to call in the Guard and even tries to federalize local police,' Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., said in a statement. 'This is not about public safety. Crime is down in DC. It's a desperate attempt to distract from the Epstein files and yet another unprecedented and dangerous misuse of our military.'
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told Axios he would introduce a resolution later this week to end Trump's emergency order — although it's unlikely to pass in a Republican-controlled Congress.
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