Trump says he's placing Washington police under federal control and activating the National Guard
The president, flanked by his attorney general, his defense secretary and the FBI director, said he was declaring a public safety emergency and his administration would be removing homeless encampments.
'We're going to take our capital back,' Donald Trump declared, adding he'd also be 'getting rid of the slums.'
For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The District of Columbia's status as a congressionally established federal district gives him a unique opportunity to push his tough-on-crime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime.
Attorney General Pam Bondi will assume responsibility for Washington's metro police department, Trump said, as he also railed against potholes and graffiti in the city and called them 'embarrassing.' The president did not provide a timeline for the control of the police department, but he's limited to 30 days under statute.
As Trump spoke, demonstrators gathered outside the White House to protest his moves. And local officials rejected the Republican president's depiction of the district as crime-ridden and called his actions illegal.
'The administration's actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,' District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. 'There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia."
Schwalb, a Democrat, said violent crime in the district reached historic 30-year lows last year and is down another 26% this year.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would follow the law regarding the 'so-called emergency' even as she indicated that Trump's actions were a reason why the District of Columbia should be a state with legal protections from such actions.
'While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised,' Bowser said.
Combating crime
The president dismissed the idea Washington needed to enlarge its 3,500-officer police force, even as he seeks to have more armed personnel going through the city with the goal of reducing crime.
'What you need is rules and regulations, and you need the right people to implement them,' he said.
Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a 'crime emergency' so his administration could take over the city's police force. He signed a directive for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to activate the National Guard.
While Trump has portrayed himself as a friend to law enforcement and enjoyed the political backing from many of their groups, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.
About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation's capital as part of Trump's effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are contributing officers.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn't immediately have a comment Monday morning.
The National Guard
Bowser, a Democrat, has previously questioned the effectiveness of using the National Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.
Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon.
'I just think that's not the most efficient use of our Guard,' she said Sunday on MSNBC's 'The Weekend,' acknowledging it is "the president's call about how to deploy the Guard.'
Bowser noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. She stressed during a Monday news conference that she believed Trump's views of the city were shaped by the 'challenging times' of the coronavirus pandemic, when he faced protests and crime spiked as the country began to recover from the outbreak.
Focusing on homelessness
Trump has emphasized the removal of Washington's homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go, and he did not give details at his news conference Monday.
'The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,' Trump wrote Sunday in a social media post. 'We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong.'
Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was 'ridiculous' and the city was 'unsafe,' after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Crime statistics
Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.
The president has criticized the district as full of 'tents, squalor, filth, and Crime,' and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others.
'This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,' Trump said Wednesday.
He called Bowser 'a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.'
Trump has repeatedly suggested the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining.
Bowser acknowledged the law allows the president to take more control over the city's police, but only if certain conditions are met.
'None of those conditions exist in our city right now," she said. 'We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down.'
___
Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil, Alanna Durkin Richer, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump hiked Canada's tariff rate to 35%, but just who's paying it remains a mystery
When U.S. President Donald Trump published an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney in late July, declaring his intention to impose a 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods in the absence of a trade deal by Aug. 1, there was a brief moment of panic. But it quickly became clear that the 35 per cent tariff, later formalized in an executive order, wasn't a new blanket levy on all goods — it was an increase to the 25 per cent that already applied to items that were not compliant with the existing North American trade pact, the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). That CUSMA exemption meant the increase was more a glancing than crushing blow and the muted reaction when the Aug. 1 deadline passed without a deal seemed to confirm it. While the trade war has roiled the auto, steel and aluminum sectors and others targeted by specific sectoral tariffs, the impact of the broader tariffs has been harder to pinpoint. Few companies have stepped forward to acknowledge their products fall outside of CUSMA and are being hit by the now 35 per cent tariff, leaving exactly who is affected and how big an impact the tariffs are having something of a mystery. Even Canada's big banks and the Bank of Canada have struggled to put a precise number on it. In the scenario planning that it updated after its most recent interest rate announcement, the central bank estimated that 100 per cent of energy and 95 per cent of all other goods should be covered by CUSMA, while bank estimates of actual CUSMA compliance have climbed to anywhere from 50 per cent to 90 per cent. Customs brokers and other trade specialists say those who are falling outside the shield of CUSMA fall into several buckets, including smaller firms that are unwilling or unable to pay the costs associated with compliance and firms of all sizes with complex manufacturing and production supply chains that may put their goods offside with CUSMA's 'rules of origin,' which require qualifying exports to contain a fixed amount of North American components and production. And unlike sectoral tariffs, which delivered a direct blow to many companies, in many cases the broader tariffs only hit selected products and a small percentage of a company's sales. Steve Bozicevic, chief executive of A&A Customers Brokers, gave the example of a client who stopped shipping its skincare products to the United States altogether over concerns that shea butter sourced from Ghana could raise flags at the U.S. border. 'They have paused Canada to U.S. shipping until they figure it out because they do not want to be on the hook for retroactive (duty and taxes) at 25 per cent or 35 per cent if they cannot transform their supply chain,' Bozicevic said, noting the company was scrambling to find ways to add more Canadian content to their brands. This type of situation is not unique, said Clifford Sosnow, a partner in the trade group at law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, especially for companies with complex manufacturing and production supply chains that use inputs from countries outside the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade pact whose place of origin is not clear or difficult to document. 'At 35 per cent (tariffs), some of our clients are likely to cut loses if their contracts permit them, and try to find alternative markets, if they can,' he said. 'Some clients we are advising are struggling with managing the 25 (per cent), particularly if they can't cost share with their buyers.' In the past, these goods could be exported to the U.S. without attracting tariffs because the sellers could count on Canada's 'most favoured nation' status under other international cooperative agreements or other exemptions, such as small value shipments. Even when things are in order these days, the new and fast-changing rules can make exporting to the U.S. difficult and potentially costly. Another of Bozicevic's clients recently faced an audit of exports to the U.S. even though it uses only North American-sourced materials. He said this was a worrying event for the Quebec-based home goods company that designs and manufactures pillows and throw blankets. It was flagged, he said, simply because raw hemp textiles often come from China. 'U.S. Customs wanted proof that their hemp was North American origin,' he said, pointing out the kind of scrutiny that puts companies in a vulnerable position if they don't have the proper documentation to prove the country of origin of all their components. 'Thanks to clean documentation and verified supply chains, (the client) passed the audit, but it underscores how even compliant businesses need to keep supply chain transparency and paperwork in top shape,' he said. Aggregate trade figures for June show tariffs paid on goods that tend to use a lot of foreign components — such as aerospace parts, electrical equipment and machinery — saw increases that were in the small single digits, said Erik Johnson, a senior economist at Bank of Montreal. That was up from zero or extremely low payments in January, before the trade war began. 'The (new tariff) that applies to non-USMCA (CUSMA) compliant goods isn't having a noticeable impact on the aggregate trade data,' he said. Johnson said the most obvious reason for the lower than expected tariff numbers would be that more companies had done the work necessary to receive preference under CUSMA. Other contributors could include exporters holding off on shipping in hopes the tariffs would be short-lived and border officials not being ready to impose the new levies. Exports were down around 14 per cent, he said, but that's the same level of decline seen since April. 'Without a surge in (trade pact) compliance, the calculated tariff rate would be much higher right now,' he said. Carl Gomez, chief economist at Costar Group, estimates that Trump's latest levy on raised the overall effective tariff rate on Canadian goods and services from 5.5 per cent to slightly above six per cent. The overall blended U.S. tariff rate on Canadian goods thus remains below the low double-digit base tariff rates negotiated by some outside the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade pact, such as the European Union, United Kingdom and Japan. More concerning for Canadian exporters is the chance that CUSMA protections may be altered or even disappear altogether. The trade pact comes up for review and possible renegotiation by the three countries next year, but some have expressed concerns it won't last even that long. After meeting with Carney on Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford warned that Trump may try to reopen negotiations early, possibly as soon as this fall. Canadian steelmakers need to focus on domestic market as tariffs lock them out of U.S.: Algoma CEO Trump put a tariff on gold — or did he? What you need to know about the bullion confusion 'Losing (the trade pact's) preferential treatment for Canadian-origin goods would have severe and devastating consequences for broad segments of the Canadian economy,' said William Pellerin, a partner in the international trade practice at law firm McMillan LLP. 'That is a worst-case scenario.' • Email: bshecter@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Audience with late Queen more nerve-racking than FMQs, recalls Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon has spoken of her 'incredible respect' for Queen Elizabeth II – saying an audience with her was 'more nerve-racking than doing First Minister's Questions'. However she said that following her death in 2022, she believed the 'absurdities' surrounding the monarchy could 'start to come to the fore much more without the Queen to keep it going'. The former Scottish first minister stressed she is 'not a monarchist', describing herself as being a 'republican by instinct'. But speaking on BBC Breakfast, she said the late Queen was a 'remarkable woman'. The former SNP leader said: 'I am a republican, but I have such incredible respect for the Queen, and incredible woman. 'The Queen was an amazing woman. There are few people in life I had a greater respect for. 'When I was a wee girl growing up in Ayrshire, the idea that one day I would sit in a room alone with the Queen would have been beyond my comprehension. 'To sit in a room with her, it was like a window on to 20th century history, she would talk about chatting to Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela and all the big figures from her reign. 'Going for an audience with the Queen was more nerve-racking than doing First Minister's Questions, she was so well informed about everything, from the local to the national, to the global.' She said there was a 'mystique' about Queen Elizabeth II, saying: 'If you were in a room and the Queen walked in, even if you weren't looking at her you could feel her presence.' While she stressed her 'respect' for the rest of the royal family, she said given this 'mystique' is no longer present, 'perhaps the absurdities of the monarchy will start to come to the fore much more'. When Queen Elizabeth II died at the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, Ms Sturgeon, who was first minister at the time, described it as a 'profoundly sad moment', adding that her life had been one of 'extraordinary dedication and service'.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US small business optimism up but uncertainty clouds outlook
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. small-business sentiment rose in July, though owners were becoming increasingly uncertain about the economic outlook and many worried about the quality of labor available. The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index rebounded 1.7 points to 100.3 last month, with some viewing business conditions as better and reporting that it is a good time to expand. However, the survey's uncertainty index jumped eight points to 97, which the NFIB said was "clouding decisions about hiring, pricing, investment in plant and equipment." It attributed the rising uncertainty to "tariffs, inflation and international conflict such as in Gaza." President Donald Trump's protectionist trade policy, marked by stiff import duties, has been blamed by economists for clouding the economic outlook. The duties have raised costs for businesses and consumers. That was evident in the NFIB survey, with one owner in the fabricated metal product manufacturing industry saying "increased costs are affecting everyone. I believe things will improve, but it will take time – six to 12 months. I just hope small businesses can hold on that long." One respondent in the agriculture sector reported that "corn and soybean prices are too low," adding that "I usually contract 50% or more ahead, but prices have not been at profitable levels therefore I have contracted next to nothing." The NFIB survey showed the share of owners reporting poor sales as their top business issue climbed last month to the highest level since February 2021. Twenty-one percent of small business owners reported labor quality as their single most important problem, up five points from June and ranking as the top problem. The Trump administration is rounding up undocumented immigrants for deportation, resulting in a reduction of the labor pool. Sign in to access your portfolio
