Trump Grabs Control of DC Police, Promises National Guard Deployment
President Trump on Monday ordered the Metropolitan Police Department placed under emergency federal control. He also said that he was activating the D.C. National Guard for a deployment of around 800 troops to the nation's capital.
There's no emergency taking place in D.C. that remotely matches Trump's justifications for the move. Violent crime rates are at a multi-decade low, according to DOJ data; videos on Monday highlighted the absurdity of the situation by showing federal agents patrolling a serene National Mall.
But at a press conference on Monday, Trump flanked himself with a cast of former Fox News hosts-turned-law enforcement officials and other longtime right-wing media fixtures that he's appointed to positions of immense authority. They each took turns portraying D.C. as a Mad Max-style hellscape in sudden need of federal and military action. At one point, newly confirmed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro (Judge Jeanine to Fox News viewers) reached back decades and threatened the 'young punks' that have apparently overrun the capital.
In that context, the move is quintessential for Trump II. There's no emergency to justify what's a brazen power play, though there is the now-familiar low-effort attempt to persuade their followers one is taking place. On the one hand, it's an absurd play for attention. On the other, it's a severe abuse of presidential power that senior officials blocked during Trump's first term in office.
Under two executive orders Trump issued on Monday, Trump federalized the D.C. police for 30 days. By law, any extension beyond that period requires congressional authorization.
At the same time, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that 800 members of the D.C. National Guard will begin to deploy to D.C. over the coming week. Their stated purpose, per a proclamation titled 'Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia,' is to 'address the epidemic of crime' in D.C.
It's not entirely clear what practical effect the move will have on the MPD. Pirro said that two Trump administration officials would oversee the police: Terry Cole, the DEA commissioner, will lead federal oversight while U.S. Marshals Service chief Gady Serralta will supervise command and control. Trump joked with Serralta at the presser that he would 'fire' him if he turned out to be weak over the next few weeks.
Trump assailed D.C. officials' oversight of the police department in a declaration announcing the decision. There are too many ironies here to count, but a big one has to do with January 6. Trump, himself a convicted felon, pardoned hundreds of people who attacked Capitol and MPD police officers in an effort to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election.
But for some of Trump's acolytes, the point isn't law and order so much as it is establishing political control. Chris Rufo, the conservative influencer, called for a 'crackdown' modeled after El Salvador strongman Nayyib Bukele.
It's the second instance in the Trump administration's nearly eight months that he's sent in troops as a show of force against American civilians. In Los Angeles, the administration managed to skirt invoking the Insurrection Act by federalizing the California National Guard on dubious grounds and via equally dubious means. An appeals court approved the decision after a district court judge ruled it illegal.
But it may have had the intended effect. Local protests in Los Angeles against ICE raids subsided after Trump ordered the military to escort immigration authorities around the city. The National Guard and a related deployment of U.S. Marines in a supporting role left the city last month.
It's a testament to how little resistance Trump has faced for moves that, in any other modern administration, would be considered absurd abuses of power unprompted by anything outside of narratives of urban decay that are a staple in right-wing media. In 2020, at the height of the George Floyd protests, Trump officials considered – but ultimately declined – to federalize the MPD. Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the police to respond to rioting while pushing back on a statement from then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that Trump would take over the agency, a DOJ IG report found last year.
Now, there's no such trepidation. It paves the way for further deployments of federal troops and further mixing of federal control, military operations, and local law enforcement.
'I'm going to look at New York in a little while,' Trump said, before hamming it up with similar threats towards Chicago and, once again, Los Angeles. 'Let's do this, let's do this together.'
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