Trump deploys National Guard to DC, takes control of city police
'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,' Trump said on Monday (Aug 11) at a White House press conference. 'And we're not going to let it happen anymore.'
The National Guard unit is expected to assist with logistics, transportation, and other tasks, with an eye toward freeing up more local police to make arrests. That's similar to Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles earlier this year to assist federal immigration officials carrying out raids. The move was made over the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and prompted days of protests.
Trump is able to temporarily seize control of the city's police department under emergency powers granted in a decades-old law that gives the more than 700,000 residents of Washington the political autonomy to elect a mayor and city council members.
The combined effort is designed to target homelessness and violent crime, Trump said.
'You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something, and you don't have that now,' Trump said at the event, flanked by officials including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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Violent crime has been dropping in the District for two years, according to local police data. As of Jan 3, violent crime in DC in 2024 was at a 30-year low, according to the US Justice Department.
But the moves come after a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer said he was assaulted in a weekend carjacking attempt earlier this month, prompting the president to cast Washington as a crime-ridden city. The White House subsequently announced that law enforcement officers from more than a dozen agencies – including the FBI, DEA, and ATF – would deploy across the city for nearly a week.
The president's efforts to exert greater control in the capital risks inflaming tensions with the city's residents, who overwhelmingly supported Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and who have borne the economic brunt of Trump's efforts to dramatically reduce the federal workforce.
Trump previously signed an executive order that makes it easier for states and cities to remove outdoor encampments on federal lands and get people into mental health or addiction treatment, a shift in approach from existing policies that have worked to find housing for homeless people first and then seek treatment opportunities for them. He also signed an executive order that created a panel to coordinate efforts to improve safety and address graffiti and vandalism in the city. BLOOMBERG
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