As federal takeover threats loom, the city of Washington waits for the White House to make its move

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Around 2 a.m., noisy revelers emerging from clubs and bars packed the sidewalks of U Street in Washington, many of them seeking a late-night slice or falafel. A robust but not unusual contingent of city police cruisers lingered around the edges of the crowds. At other late-night hot spots, nearly identical scenes unfolded.
What wasn't apparent in Friday's earliest hours: any sort of security lockdown by a multiagency flood of uniformed federal law enforcement officers. That's what President Donald Trump had promised Thursday, starting at midnight, in the administration's latest move to impose its will on the nation's capital.
In short, Trump's promised law enforcement surge to take control of the streets of D.C. did not appear to unfold on schedule. A two-hour city tour, starting around 1 a.m. Friday, revealed no overt or visible law enforcement presence other than members of the Metropolitan Police Department, the city's police force.
That still might change in coming evenings as Trump puts into action his longstanding plans to 'take over' a capital city he has repeatedly slammed as unsafe, filthy and badly run. According to his Thursday declaration, the security lockdown will run for seven days, 'with the option to extend as needed.'
On Friday night, a White House official said Thursday night's operations included arrests for possession of two stolen firearms, suspected fentanyl and marijuana. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said more than 120 members of various federal agencies — the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service — would be on duty Friday night, upping the complement of federal officers involved.
'This is the first step in stopping the violent crime that has been plaguing the streets of Washington, D.C.,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who publicly faced off against Trump in 2020 when he called in a massive federal law enforcement response to disperse crowds of protesters, has not said a public word since Trump's declaration. The MPD has gone similarly silent.
A crackdown came after an assault
The catalyst for this latest round of D.C. takeover drama was the assault last weekend on a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency by a group of teenagers in an attempted carjacking. The victim, Edward Coristine, nicknamed 'Big Balls,' was among the most visible figures of Trump's DOGE, which was tasked with slashing federal bureaucracy.
Police arrested two 15-year-olds and say they're still seeking other members of the group. Trump quickly renewed his calls for the federal government to seize control.
'If D.C. doesn't get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they're not going to get away with it anymore,' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. He later doubled down on those comments, telling reporters he was considering everything from repealing Washington's limited 'home rule' autonomy to 'bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly.'
The threats come at a time when Bowser's government can legitimately claim to have reduced the number of homicides and carjackings, both of which spiked in 2023. The number of carjackings overall dropped significantly the following year in 2024, from 957 to just under 500, and is on track to decline again this year, with less than 200 recorded so far more than halfway through the year.
The portion of juveniles arrested for carjacking, though, has remained above 50%, and Bowser's government has taken steps to reign in a new phenomenon of rowdy teenagers causing disarray and disturbances in public spaces. Emergency legislation passed by the D.C. Council earlier this summer imposed tighter youth curfew restrictions and empowered Police Chief Pamela Smith to declare temporary juvenile curfew zones for four days at a time. In those areas, a gathering of nine or more kids under the age of 18 is unlawful after 8 p.m.
This lies within presidential authority
Trump is completely within his powers in deploying federal law enforcement assets on D.C. streets. He could also deploy the National Guard, although they are not one of the dozen participating agencies listed in his declaration. The first Trump administration called in the National Guard during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and again on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters overran the Capitol Building.
But further steps, including taking over the police department, would require a declaration of emergency — something legal experts believe would most likely be challenged in court. That approach would fit the general pattern of Trump's second term in office; he has declared repeated states of emergency on issues ranging from border protection to economic tariffs and, in many cases, moved forward while the courts sorted them out.
These declarations have enabled his administration to govern via executive order. On Wednesday, Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare new sanctions on Russia.
Imposing a full federal takeover of Washington would require a congressional repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973. It's a step that Trump said lawyers are examining, but it could face pushback.
That law was specific to Washington, not other communities in the United States that have their own home rule powers but generally retain representation in their state legislatures, said Monica Hopkins, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia.
Signed into law by President Richard Nixon, the measure allowed D.C. residents to elect their own mayor, council and local commissioners. The district had been previously run by federally appointed commissioners and members of Congress, some of whom balked at having to deal with potholes and other details of running a city of 700,000 residents.
So far, Trump's longstanding criticisms of Washington can be felt most directly in the actions of the National Park Service, which controls wide swaths of land throughout the capital. In Trump's second administration, the NPS has aggressively stepped up its clearing of homeless encampments on Park Service land and recently carried out a series of arrests of people smoking marijuana in public parks.
Earlier this week, the NPS announced that a statue of a Confederate military leader that was toppled by protesters in 2020 would be restored and replaced in line with an Executive Order.
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Associated Press reporters Mike Pesoli, Michael Kunzelman and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.