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The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump team's order for new DC police chief prompts pushback from local leaders
Washington officials are pushing back against an order from US attorney general Pam Bondi late on Thursday that the federal government impose a new police chief on the nation's capital. The Trump administration named the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to be imposed as 'emergency police commissioner' over Washington DC – a move that escalates federal control of the city but immediately was challenged by local leaders. Federalized national guard troops were ordered into the city four days ago as Donald Trump declared a crisis of crime and homelessness there, amid outrage from opponents. Bondi put DEA chief Terry Cole in charge of the capital's Metropolitan police department (MPD), saying he will assume the 'powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police'. Bondi said police department personnel 'must receive approval from Commissioner Cole' before issuing any orders. It was not immediately clear where the move leaves Pamela Smith, the MPD police chief, who works for the city's mayor, Muriel Bowser. Bowser promptly hit back, saying late on Thursday in a social media post: 'In reference to the US Attorney General's order, there is no statute that conveys the District's personnel authority to a federal official.' Bowser included a letter from the District of Columbia attorney general, Brian Schwalb, to Smith opining that Bondi's order was 'unlawful'and that Smith is 'not legally obligated to follow it'. 'Members of MPD must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor,' Schwalb wrote in the letter to Smith. Bondi's directive came hours after Smith directed MPD officers to share information regarding people not in custody – such as someone involved in a traffic stop or checkpoint – with federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency. But, as a so-called sanctuary city, DC police would still be prevented by local law from providing federal immigration agencies with the personal information of an undocumented person in MPD custody, including their release details, location or photos, and cannot arrest people on the basis of their immigration status, or let immigration officials question subjects in police custody. But the justice department said Bondi disagreed with the police chief's directive because it allowed for continued enforcement of 'sanctuary policies' and Bondi said she was rescinding Smith's order. The DC power struggle is the latest move by the US president and his administration to test the limits of federal authority, relying on obscure statutes and a subjective declaration of a crisis to bolster a hardline approach to crime and immigration. Bondi also overnight sent anti-sanctuary city letters to the mayors of 32 cities and a handful of county executives across the US, warning that she intends to prosecute political leaders who are not in her view sufficiently supportive of immigration enforcement. Democratic-led city leaders dispute the administration's characterizations that their cities are overrun with lawlessness, including unhoused people with substance abuse and mental health issues contributing to an increase in homeless and tent encampments. They say Washington has grappled with spikes in violence and visible homelessness, the city's homicide rate ranks below those of several other major US cities and the capital is not in the throes of the public safety collapse the administration has portrayed. Trump earlier praised Smith's directive effectively brought together administration moves on city law enforcement and his nationwide efforts to curb immigration. 'That's a very positive thing. I have heard that just happened,' Trump said of Smith's order. 'That's a great step. That's a great step if they're doing that.' Bowser, walking a tightrope between the Republican White House and the constituency of her largely Democratic city, was out of town on Thursday for a family commitment in Martha's Vineyard, fetching her child from summer camp, but would be back on Friday, her office said. Associated Press contributed reporting
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Donald Trump says he will ask Congress to extend limit on control of Washington DC police
Update: Date: 2025-08-14T09:46:53.000Z Title: Trump says he will seek 'long-term' control of DC police Content: Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I'm Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours. We start with news that Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask Congress for 'long-term' control of Washington DC's police department and signaled he expected other Democratic-led cities to change their laws in response to his deployment of national guard troops and federal agents into the capital. The president's comments came as the White House took credit for dozens of arrests overnight in Washington as part of Trump's campaign to fight a 'crime crisis', which the city's leaders say does not exist. Trump earlier this week invoked a never-before-used clause of the law that sets out the federal district's governance structure to take temporary control of the police department, but will need Congress's permission to extend it beyond the 30 days allowed under the statute. It comes as the New York Times reported that protesters last night gathered around law enforcement officers, including homeland security agents, who set up a police checkpoint in the busy U Street corridor in north-west Washington. Crowds chanted 'go home fascists' and told drivers to turn away from the checkpoint on 14th Street, warning that they could be stopped for reasons including not wearing seat belts or broken taillights. The checkpoint was closed just before 11 pm. Read our full report here: In other developments: Trump promised 'very severe consequences' if Vladimir Putin doesn't agree to ceasefire at their Friday meeting in Alaska. He didn't, however, elaborate on what those penalties will be. Trump took part in a virtual meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders ahead of his summit in Alaska with Putin which the German chancellor described as 'constructive'. Zelenskyy confirmed that Trump said he would call him right after the meeting with Putin. At the Kennedy Center, Trump announced that he would host this year's honors himself. California governor Gavin Newsom, who revels in trolling Trump on social media, used the president's bizarre writing style to promote a news conference on his state's plan to counter Texas gerrymandering, scheduled for Thursday at 11.30 am Pacific Time. The White House announced that Trump revoked an executive order issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, which made it government policy to promote competition throughout the US economy. Unlike many of Trump's orders, this one, which ended 72 federal initiatives to fight corporate monopolies and aid workers and consumers, was released without any publicity at all. Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, EJ Antoni, was in the crowd outside the Capitol on 6 January 2021 when Trump supporters rioted in a failed effort to keep him in office.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: Federal Policing Push Underway in Nation's Capital
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, on Monday called President Trump's announced takeover of the city's police force 'unsettling and unprecedented' but appeared resigned to cooperate with it, stressing at a news conference that there was little she could do to block the move. She repeatedly characterized Mr. Trump's federalization of the city's police force, under an emergency declaration to combat a crime 'crisis' despite falling violent crime rates, as a workable extension of the oftentimes collaborative relationship between federal and local law enforcement entities tasked to the nation's capital. Ms. Bowser's tone was strikingly diplomatic, an approach in keeping with the more muted posture she has adopted toward Mr. Trump during his second term, as compared to more fiery statements during his first term opposing similar threats to the city's limited autonomy. The 'plain language' of the city's home rule charter, she explained, authorized the president to declare a public safety emergency and request the city to defer to the directions of the federal government. And, she added, 'it says the mayor shall comply with those requests.' Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, which gave D.C. the power to elect its own local government but left Congress with ultimate power over the city's laws and budget, Mr. Trump can declare a state of emergency to assert control over local law enforcement for 30 days. 'We have a responsibility to support the executive order and one of the roles I have is to ensure that we work very collaboratively with our federal partners,' she said, later adding: 'Our relationship with our federal partners is not new, we do this on a daily basis.' But despite her calm demeanor, it was clear that Ms. Bowser viewed Mr. Trump's announcement as fundamentally different than anything the city has experienced in decades. 'I don't want to minimize what was said, and I don't want too minimize the intrusion on our autonomy,' she told reporters. She dismissed Mr. Trump's assertions of a crime-ridden D.C. as fundamentally divorced from fact, rattling off statistics indicating that the city had actually reversed a crime wave that rose on the heels the Covid-19 pandemic and crested in 2023. She argued that Mr. Trump was fully aware of those details. 'In every conversation I have with him, we're always briefing the president on our progress,' she said. In their first meeting after Mr. Trump's November re-election, she added, 'we went over the crime trends, we went over how we're seeing decreases, so the president is read in on our efforts.' The city's murder rate, while higher than it was 15 years ago, has been dropping over the past 18 months and is now where it was before the pandemic. The number of carjackings has also dropped precipitously after a steep spike in 2023. City officials say that violent crime generally is at a 30-year low, and while the F.B.I. measures violent crime somewhat differently than the district, the recent trend in the city is clear. Ms. Bowser said that city leaders would 'continue to look for ways to make our city safe,' praising the local police force for their efforts. She also insisted that Chief Pamela Smith would remain in charge of the D.C. police, working with the administration while the force answers to the Department of Justice, despite Mr. Trump's suggestion that there would be a change in leadership. Still, Ms. Bowser was careful not to express direct anger at Mr. Trump in her own words, referring instead to a statement from Brian Schwalb, the D.C. attorney general, to communicate her umbrage at Mr. Trump's move. On Monday, Mr. Schwalb put out a statement calling Mr. Trump's takeover 'unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,' adding that city officials 'are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents.' Ms. Bowser instead directed her most palpable frustrations toward Congress, pointing out that lawmakers had opportunities in recent years to put more power in the hands of Washington residents and its mayor, but had chosen not to. Ms. Bowser, like other past leaders of Washington, has been a staunch advocate for statehood, which would give the city the ability to govern itself and ensure that its residents had voting representation in Congress. In 2020 and 2021, the House of Representatives, then led by Democrats, passed bills that would have granted D.C. statehood, but neither passed the Senate. Ms. Bowser also pointed out that lawmakers had an opportunity to put the D.C. National Guard under the mayor's authority, and didn't. When asked Monday about Mr. Trump's threats to deploy additional active duty military units beyond the National Guard to D.C., she said she did not believe it was legal 'to use the American military against American citizens on American soil.' Several Democrats said they planned to introduce bills or legislation to address Mr. Trump's announcement and reverse its effects. They include Representative Jamie Raskin, whose Maryland district includes Washington suburbs, who said he would introduce a resolution to 'reverse this plainly ridiculous state of local emergency' and restore local control to D.C.'s government. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's nonvoting delegate, and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland have also said they would reintroduce bills that would repeal the president's authority to take temporary control of the D.C. police and that would give the city's mayor authority over the D.C. National Guard. These measures face an uphill climb to pass a Republican-controlled Congress, particularly given a 60-vote threshold needed to pass most legislation. Michael Gold contributed reporting.
Fox News
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
'SHADY, SHIESTY GAMES': Tomi Lahren SLAMS Dems Sudden Flipping on Redistricting
Tomi Lahren, host of Tomi Lahren is Fearless on OutKick and Fox News contributor, joined The Guy Benson Show today to discuss Donald Trump's swift takeover of Washington D.C. as he mobilizes the National Guard to address the city's crime crisis. Tomi also weighed in on Senator Marsha Blackburn's recently announced run for Tennessee governor, calling Blackburn 'my pick' for the job. Lahren also reacted to the Guy Benson Show's 'dignified' Jasmine Crockett compilation, and she suggested that Crockett should 'go to BRAVO.' Lahren also slammed the left's 'shady, shiesty little games' as Democrats suddenly move against redistricting now that the changes benefit the right instead of the left. Listen to the full interview below! Listen to the full interview below: Listen to the full podcast below:
New York Times
11-08-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
D.C. Mayor Calls Trump's Police Takeover ‘Unsettling' but Promises Cooperation
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, on Monday called President Trump's announced takeover of the city's police force 'unsettling and unprecedented' but appeared resigned to cooperate with it, stressing at a news conference that there was little she could do to block the move. She repeatedly characterized Mr. Trump's federalization of the city's police force, under an emergency declaration to combat a crime 'crisis' despite falling violent crime rates, as a workable extension of the oftentimes collaborative relationship between federal and local law enforcement entities tasked to the nation's capital. Ms. Bowser's tone was strikingly diplomatic, an approach in keeping with the more muted posture she has adopted toward Mr. Trump during his second term, as compared to more fiery statements during his first term opposing similar threats to the city's limited autonomy. The 'plain language' of the city's home rule charter, she explained, authorized the president to declare a public safety emergency and request the city to defer to the directions of the federal government. And, she added, 'it says the mayor shall comply with those requests.' Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, which gave D.C. the power to elect its own local government but left Congress with ultimate power over the city's laws and budget, Mr. Trump can declare a state of emergency to assert control over local law enforcement for 30 days. 'We have a responsibility to support the executive order and one of the roles I have is to ensure that we work very collaboratively with our federal partners,' she said, later adding: 'Our relationship with our federal partners is not new, we do this on a daily basis.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
