President Donald Trump announced he is invoking the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to bring the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control - a rare and contentious step. The US President further added that National Guard troops would be deployed to Washington, D.C., to “re-establish law, order, and public safety,” stressing they would be allowed to carry out their duties without restriction.
"I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, D.C.," Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. "Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals."
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Pam Bondi will be overseeing the federal takeover of the city’s police forces.
What will the National Guard do?
{{/usCountry}}Pam Bondi will be overseeing the federal takeover of the city’s police forces.
What will the National Guard do?
{{/usCountry}}The National Guard unit is expected to assist with logistics, transportation, and other tasks, with an eye toward freeing up more local police to make arrests. That’s similar to Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles earlier this year to assist federal immigration officials carrying out raids. The move was made over the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and prompted days of protests.
Trump is able to temporarily seize control of the city’s police department under emergency powers granted in a decades-old law that gives the more than 700,000 residents of Washington the political autonomy to elect a mayor and city council members.
The combined effort is designed to target homelessness and violent crime, Trump said.
“You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something, and you don’t have that now,” Trump said.
Trump's big promise
The announcement comes just days after Trump promised new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington, prompting the city's mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets.
Hundreds of officers and agents from over a dozen federal agencies, including the FBI, ICE, DEA, and ATF, have already fanned out across the city in recent days.
Ahead of the news conference, Trump posted on social media that the nation's capital would be “LIBERATED today!” He said he would end the “days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people.”
For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings.