President Donald Trump said Monday he would place the Washington, D.C., police department under federal control and deploy the National Guard, an escalation of federal power in his campaign to tighten control over the nation’s deep-blue capital city.
“This is liberation day in D.C. and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said.
Although crime in Washington hit a 30-year low last year, Trump on Monday said he was declaring a public safety emergency in the District. The president in recent days has seized on violence against a Trump administration staffer to cast the city as dangerous, pledging earlier Monday that “Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR.”
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of violent youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore,” the president said at the White House.
Trump said he was invoking a part of the law governing D.C. that allows the president to take control of the local police department on a temporary basis in an emergency. Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Terry Cole will be designated the Metropolitan Police Department’s leader, the president said.
Trump can seize control of the District’s police for up to 48 hours without congressional approval and for up to 30 days if he sends a special notice to leaders of certain congressional committees.
The provision, section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, has never been invoked before.
The National Guard deployment follows Trump’s move in June to call nearly 5,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to tamp down protests and civil unrest in response to federal immigration raids. During his first term, Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. to clear racial justice protesters.
“You will see them flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He said the Pentagon was also “prepared to bring in” other National Guard and specialized units.
“They will be strong, they will be tough and they will stand with their law enforcement partners,” Hegseth said.
Trump has greater authority over the D.C. National Guard than state national guards because of the federal government’s control over the nation’s capital. Governors control the state guards, although the president can federalize the guard in an emergency or for use in combat operations.
Trump’s rampage against crime and homelessness in D.C. appears to stem in part from what he’s seen himself in the city, POLITICO reported earlier Monday. Over the weekend, Trump posted to social media pictures of trash and homeless encampments that appeared to be taken from his motorcade. Those photos appeared behind Trump at the White House press briefing room on Monday.
“What it really is is the president has been driving around D.C. and has seen the filth and has seen the squalor himself, and he wants to make it more beautiful and more safe,” a White House official told POLITICO late Sunday.
Josh Gerstein and Adam Wren contributed to this report.
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