Latest news with #federalize
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pentagon is already calling National Guard in other states looking for units that could help in DC
President Donald Trump's decision to activate around 800 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., to tackle street crime has forced the Pentagon to look to other states for help. Trump announced his decision to federalize D.C.'s police department at a White House press conference on Monday at which he was flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that reinforcements could be called up if the Guard encounters resistance from protesters, adding that 'specialized units' might be included in their number. However, a senior Army official has since told The New York Times that the current deployment of D.C. Guard is likely to be sufficient for the task in hand. The Department of Defense has reportedly moved to ensure the Guard's duties in Washington are kept to a safe minimum, with one official telling the Times that 'soldiers with M-16s who have been trained to kill adversaries' will not be placed in policing roles. The mission has nevertheless been criticized, with Dr Carrie A Lee, former chair of the department of national security and strategy at the Army War College, telling the newspaper: 'This is part of a pattern where the administration is using and appropriating military resources for nonmilitary domestic goals. 'Whether it's immigration or going against drug cartels or crime in Washington, it's very clear, to me at least, that this administration sees the military as a one-size-fits-all solution to accomplishing its domestic political priorities.' Trump has previously dispatched the Guard to the U.S. southern border with Mexico and to Los Angeles in June to help quell anti-ICE demonstrations. Guardsmen have since reportedly described that experience as bad for morale, obliterating much of the good will they had earned from helping to extinguish California's wildfires in January and expressed a fear it could harm future enlistment drives. The step also had a negative impact on the president's own approval ratings. At his press conference on Monday, Trump pledged to 'rescue' the city from 'crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,' despite the city's much-improved crime statistics suggesting there was no need or justification. But the president nevertheless insisted: 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people, and we're not going to let it happen anymore.' His opponents, meanwhile, have been quick to accuse him of seeking a distraction from the ongoing pressure he faces to release the government's files on the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Pentagon is already calling National Guard in other states looking for units that could help in DC
President Donald Trump 's decision to activate around 800 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., to tackle street crime has forced the Pentagon to look to other states for help. Trump announced his decision to federalize D.C.'s police department at a White House press conference on Monday at which he was flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that reinforcements could be called up if the Guard encounters resistance from protesters, adding that 'specialized units' might be included in their number. However, a senior Army official has since told The New York Times that the current deployment of D.C. Guard is likely to be sufficient for the task in hand. The Department of Defense has reportedly moved to ensure the Guard's duties in Washington are kept to a safe minimum, with one official telling the Times that 'soldiers with M-16s who have been trained to kill adversaries' will not be placed in policing roles. The mission has nevertheless been criticized, with Dr Carrie A Lee, former chair of the department of national security and strategy at the Army War College, telling the newspaper: 'This is part of a pattern where the administration is using and appropriating military resources for nonmilitary domestic goals. 'Whether it's immigration or going against drug cartels or crime in Washington, it's very clear, to me at least, that this administration sees the military as a one-size-fits-all solution to accomplishing its domestic political priorities.' Trump has previously dispatched the Guard to the U.S. southern border with Mexico and to Los Angeles in June to help quell anti-ICE demonstrations. Guardsmen have since reportedly described that experience as bad for morale, obliterating much of the good will they had earned from helping to extinguish California's wildfires in January and expressed a fear it could harm future enlistment drives. The step also had a negative impact on the president's own approval ratings. At his press conference on Monday, Trump pledged to 'rescue' the city from 'crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,' despite the city's much-improved crime statistics suggesting there was no need or justification. But the president nevertheless insisted: 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people, and we're not going to let it happen anymore.'
CBC
a day ago
- Politics
- CBC
Trump to deploy National Guard in D.C. — even as data shows crime at 30-year low
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday he will deploy hundreds of D.C. National Guard troops on the streets of Washington as part of a push to rein in violent crime, even as local police data shows those incidents are down sharply this year. Trump is also moving to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department, placing the municipal agency directly under the control of people who report to the president. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump described the nation's capital as a crime-infested hellscape that requires a heavy-handed federal approach to bring "bloodthirsty" criminals and "drugged-out maniacs" to heel. "This is liberation day in D.C. and we're going to take our capital back," Trump said. "This is a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, squalor and worse." Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said some 800 guardsmen will be "flowing" into the district this week — and there could be more added in the coming days. Trump himself said he is also willing to send in the U.S. military if he feels it's necessary to further tamp down what he called a public safety "emergency." Unlike in other jurisdictions, Trump is the commander-in-chief of the D.C. National Guard and it can be deployed as he sees fit. The district is not a state and, under the federal D.C. Home Rule Act, the president and Congress can usurp locally elected officials, virtually all of whom are Democrats. The president's decision to use troops as domestic law enforcers has raised eyebrows elsewhere. Lawyers representing Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom will meet in court on Monday to litigate the president's earlier decision to ignore decades of precedent and unilaterally deploy the California National Guard to tamp down civil unrest amid immigration raids in Los Angeles. But Trump said he is undeterred by legal challenges, saying "woke" D.C. politicians have hamstrung the Washington police in the past — and that's going to change now that local law enforcement will report to one of Trump's most-trusted lieutenants, Attorney General Pam Bondi. "Now, they are allowed to do whatever they hell they want," Trump said of the police. "It's time for dramatic action. We're going to have a safe, beautiful capital, and it's going to happen very quickly." D.C. crime down sharply The move comes even as the data reveals local efforts to crack down on crime are paying off. According to D.C. police figures, violent crime is down some 26 per cent year-to-date compared to the same time period in 2024 — with particularly steep declines reported in sexual abuse, robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon. The statistics reveal there have been about 1,600 violent incidents so far this year, compared to the 2,140 reported by this date in 2024 in a city with roughly 700,000 people. And 2024 wasn't a particularly bad year. The U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. has reported violent crime in the district hit a 30-year low in 2024, falling some 35 per cent compared to 2023, after local police targeted criminal "crews" who are operating in certain pockets of Washington. "We are not experiencing a crime spike," Mayor Muriel Bowser said in an interview with MSNBC before Trump's announcement today. "We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city — driving it down to a 30-year low, in fact, over the past year," she said, noting those efforts have driven improved tourism numbers and business activity in a city that was hard hit by pandemic-era disruptions. Blocks from the White House, at least 100 people gathered in front of Lafayette Square to protest Trump's takeover of the city police. "We will not stand here and allow authoritarianism in Washington, D.C.," said Nee Nee Taylor, a co-founder of Free DC, which organized the rally and was formed to defend home rule in the city, which some local residents fear could be ended on Trump's watch. "We are going to be here and we're not backing down," Taylor said. A U.S. Supreme Court police officer stands watch outside of the Supreme Court, June 26, 2025, in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo) Still, Trump framed the federal intervention as a necessary step to restore order to a city that is more dangerous than some other major locales — even with the recent reported declines. Some D.C. wards have historically had some of the highest crime rates in the U.S., with homicide rates even higher than the most dangerous cities in America, such as New Orleans, La., and Memphis, Tenn. The White House pointed to research that shows D.C. had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country last year as justification for the president's extraordinary measures. Although even those figures show there's been a 30 per cent decline in that type of crime. "While Fake News journalists and politicians go out of their way to claim otherwise, the reality is that our nation's capital is anything but safe," the White House said in a press release. Promising to aggressively pursue and deport foreign criminals in the district and round up "homegrown" gang members, Trump said he's prepared to use every possible tool at his disposal to fix what he called "a dirty, disgusting, once-beautiful capital." "They're rough and tough," he said of D.C. criminals. "But we're rougher and tougher." Trump is also promising to launch what he's calling a "beautification" campaign in the capital by clearing out homeless encampments, repaving city streets, fixing broken medians and adding new venues like his promised White House ballroom. Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School who has studied politics and crime, said Trump's police takeover is a concerning development. "Mobilizing the military to try and control the civilian population — it's one of the first steps we see towards autocracy in other countries around the world," he said in an interview. "It's one of the scariest things for people who care about the health of democracy — myself included — to see." De Benedictis-Kessner said the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, carried out largely by Trump supporters, was among D.C.'s most serious criminal acts in recent memory. "This president pardoned those people," he said. "It just seems incredibly hypocritical for him to be saying crime in D.C. is out of control."
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Residents react to Trump's plan to federalize DC: 'Terrible idea'
While most residents in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump should not federalize the nation's capital, most said they are concerned about crime. (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital)
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Even Fox News Is Fact-Checking Trump's Deranged D.C. Claims
The president wants to federalize law enforcement in the nation's capital—but his favorite mainstream media channel isn't on board. Fox News contributor Ted Williams, a criminal and civil trial attorney and former member of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, issued an acute fact check for Donald Trump Sunday. Williams informed the network that he found Trump's plan 'troubling' because 'crime is not out of control in the District of Columbia.' 'Yes there is crime, and there will always be crime,' Williams said, identifying minors as some of the major perpetrators of robberies over the last several years. 'In any major metropolitan city you're going to have, unfortunately, juveniles committing crimes.' Trump has turned his attention towards Washington's crime since 19-year-old DOGE staffer Edward Coristine, better known as 'Big Balls,' was attacked a week ago by a couple of 15-year-olds who stole his iPhone. On Sunday, Trump said he would force the homeless out of the city 'IMMEDIATELY' and that his administration would imprison criminals 'very fast.' 'I would like to ask Mr. Trump,' Williams said. 'Where were you last month when a three-year-old child, Honesty Cheadle, was shot and killed as the result of crime in the District of Columbia?' 'Don't use this as a pretext to actually eradicate home rule,' he continued. 'And that seemed to be what Mr. Trump is interested in.' Trump also posted an ominous warning to Washington's denizens early Monday, claiming that the city would be 'liberated' the same day. 'Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER! I quickly fixed the Border (ZERO ILLEGALS in last 3 months!), D.C. is next!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.' Solve the daily Crossword
