Trump deploys National Guard in DC Police takeover
Donald Trump says he needed to send troops to Washington DC to "rescue" the US capital, and signals other cities may follow. Photo: Reuters
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was deploying 800 National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department.
Trump's move, which bypassed the city's elected leaders, was emblematic of his second-term approach, which has seen him wield executive authority in ways with little precedent in modern US history and in defiance of political norms.
The president cast his actions as necessary to "rescue" Washington from a purported wave of lawlessness.
Statistics show that violent crime shot up in 2023 but has been rapidly declining since.
"Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals," Trump told a news conference at the White House.
It is the second time this summer that the Republican president has deployed troops to a Democratically governed city.
A federal trial began on Monday in San Francisco on whether Trump violated US law by deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June without the approval of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
And Trump signaled that other major US cities with Democratic leadership could be next, including Chicago, a city that has long been beset by violent crime, although it was down significantly in the first half of the year.
"If we need to, we're going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster," Trump said at the White House, adding, "Hopefully L.A. is watching."
During Trump's election campaign his law and order platform often had racial undertones.
He singled out majority Democratic cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Washington – all cities with large Black populations – when he spoke about rampant crime in urban areas.
Hundreds of officers and agents from more than a dozen federal agencies have fanned out across Washington in recent days.
Attorney General Pam Bondi will oversee the police force, Trump said.
The US Army said the National Guard troops would carry out a number of tasks, including "administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement."
Between 100 and 200 of the troops would be supporting law enforcement at any given time.
The Democratic mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has pushed back on Trump's claims of unchecked violence, noting that violent crime hit its lowest level in more than three decades last year.
Violent crime, including murders, soared in 2023, turning Washington into one of the nation's deadliest cities.
However, violent crime dropped 35 percent in 2024, according to federal data, and it has fallen an additional 26 percent in the first seven months of 2025, according to city police.
Bowser struck a diplomatic tone at a news conference, saying she and other members of her administration would work with the federal government, even as she again rejected Trump's claim of widespread crime. (Reuters)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Why Japan, South Korea and EU couldn't join forces against Trump
Before the Trump administration's August 1 deadline, Japan South Korea and the European Union struck agreements with the United States, accepting American tariffs of 15 per cent on their exports. They all came with strings of promised investments in the US attached. While the agreements looked like capitulation at the time, these governments may be breathing sighs of relief in light of the latest tariffs US President Donald Trump has imposed on Canada, Brazil and India. But 15 per cent is still higher than the 10 per cent baseline rate enjoyed by Russia, Iran, the UK and Australia. Leaving aside the potential long-term damage to US industries and consumers, Trump may congratulate himself on prevailing against major trading partners. After threatening them with high tariffs, he pushed them into accepting more 'reasonable' one-way tariffs. From Trump's perspective, these are fair consideration for the security protection the US has long provided to its Asian and European allies. It is against this backdrop that these allies could not drive harder trade bargains. Trump was able to divide and conquer these major economies. The deal Japan reached essentially set a benchmark for the EU and South Korea to follow. Unlike China, these economies are all major auto exporters to America. With Chinese EVs facing tariffs of more than 100 per cent, China does not sell many cars in the US. During the Cold War, the US allowed Japan and South Korea one-way access to its vast auto market, arguably at the expense of its domestic car industry. Since the late 1980s, Trump has been fascinated with tariffs, triggered by the perceived injustice with Japan. Thus, they should be seen as his attempt to redress the historical imbalance.
HKFP
2 hours ago
- HKFP
US President Trump signs order to extend China tariff truce by 90 days
US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a delay in the reimposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire. The White House's halt on steeper tariffs will be in place until November 10. 'I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. The truce on steeper levies had been due to expire Tuesday. While the United States and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other's products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them. As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30 percent and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10 percent. Those rates will now hold until November — or whenever a deal is cut before then. Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce. China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10-percent duty, the report said. It would also 'take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration,' Xinhua reported. In the executive order posted Monday to its website, the White House reiterated its position that there are 'large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits' and they 'constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States.' The order acknowledged Washington's ongoing discussions with Beijing 'to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship' and noted that China has continued to 'take significant steps toward remedying' the US complaints. Trump-Xi summit? 'Beijing will be happy to keep the US-China negotiation going, but it is unlikely to make concessions,' warned William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. He believes China sees its leverage over rare earth exports as a strong one, and that Beijing will likely use it to pressure Washington. US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said the current extension is 'critical to give the two governments time to negotiate an agreement' providing much-needed certainty for companies to make plans. A trade deal, in turn, would 'pave the way for a Trump-Xi summit this fall,' said Asia Society Policy Institute senior vice president Wendy Cutler. But Cutler, herself a former US trade official, said: 'This will be far from a walk in the park.' Since Trump took office, China's tariffs have essentially boomeranged, from the initially modest 10 percent hike in February, followed by repeated surges as Beijing and Washington clashed, until it hit a high of 145 percent in April. Now the tariff has been pulled back to 30 percent, a negotiated truce rate. Even as both countries reached a pact to cool tensions after high level talks in Geneva in May, the de-escalation has been shaky. Key economic officials convened in London in June as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers met again in Stockholm last month. Trump said in a social media post Sunday that he hoped China will 'quickly quadruple its soybean orders,' adding this would be a way to balance trade with the United States. China's exports reached record highs in 2024, and Beijing reported that their exports exceeded expectations in June, climbing 5.8 percent year-on-year, as the economic superpower works to sustain growth amid Trump's trade war. Separately, since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-percent 'reciprocal' tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair. This surged to varying steeper levels last Thursday for dozens of economies. Major partners like the European Union, Japan and South Korea now see a 15-percent US duty on many products, while the level went as high as 41 percent for Syria. The 'reciprocal' tariffs exclude sectors that have been targeted individually, such as steel and aluminum, and those that are being investigated like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. They are also expected to exclude gold, although a clarification by US customs authorities made public last week caused concern that certain gold bars might still be targeted. Trump said Monday that gold imports will not face additional tariffs, without providing further details. The president has taken separate aim at individual countries such as Brazil over the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup, and India over its purchase of Russian oil.
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Israel's Gaza City offensive may be weeks away, leaving time for possible ceasefire
Israel's new offensive in Gaza City could take weeks to start, leaving the door open for a ceasefire, officials say, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would get under way 'fairly quickly' and end the war with Hamas' defeat. Two officials who were at a security cabinet meeting on Thursday to approve the plan told Reuters that the evacuation of civilians from affected areas may only be completed by the start of October, giving time for a deal to be pursued. The plan raised international alarm over the harm it could bring to the shattered enclave, where a hunger crisis has worsened. On Sunday, Netanyahu summoned foreign journalists to explain the blueprint, which includes what he described as a surge of humanitarian aid. Netanyahu said that Israel will first allow civilians to leave the battle zones before forces move in on Gaza City, which he described as one of Hamas' last two remaining strongholds, whose defeat will bring an end to the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points at a map of Gaza during a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday. Photo: Xinhua But Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a security cabinet member who has demanded even tougher action, said the plan was designed to pressure Hamas back to the negotiating table, rather than defeat the group and urged Netanyahu to scrap it.
