Trump takes over DC police in extraordinary move, deploys National Guard in capital

In an unprecedented display of presidential authority in the nation’s capital, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday that he was sending 800 National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily assuming control of the city’s police force.
Trump’s action, which circumvented the elected officials of the city, was representative of his second-term strategy, which has seen him exercise executive authority in ways that are unusual in contemporary American history and go against democratic convention.

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.

The Republican president has sent troops to a city with a Democratic government for the second time this summer. Whether Trump broke U.S. law by sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June without California Governor Gavin Newsom’s consent was the subject of a federal trial that started Monday in San Francisco. Trump also hinted that other large American cities with Democratic administrations might follow suit, such as Chicago, which has long been plagued by violent crime despite a sharp decline 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.

The U.S. 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.

In 2023, homicides and other violent crimes skyrocketed, making Washington one of the worst cities in the country. However, according to federal figures, violent crime decreased by 35% in 2024, and local police report that it has decreased by an additional 26% in the first seven months of 2025.

At a press conference, Bowser maintained a diplomatic stance while rejecting Trump’s allegation of widespread criminality and stating that she and other administration officials would cooperate with the federal government.

Bowser claimed that the statute seemed to grant the president broad authority to temporarily take over the police department. However, earlier, Brian Schwalb, the city’s attorney general, referred to Trump’s actions as “unlawful” and stated that his office was “considering all of our options.”