President Donald Trump is deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department, vowing to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital and drawing pushback from local officials.
Trump held a press conference at the White House on Monday morning alongside several administration officials, announcing his intention to deploy National Guard troops to Washington and place the Metropolitan Police Department under the direct authority of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we’re going to take our capital back,” he proclaimed, saying the moves will “help re-establish law, order and public safety” in the district.
In an executive order published Monday, Trump insisted that the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Re-Organization Act gave him the authority to exercise such control over the city. The relevant portion of the federal law states that the federal government can assume control of the Metropolitan Police Department if “special conditions of an emergency nature exist.”
To justify his latest move, the president shared crime statistics for Washington, D.C. during the press conference on Monday.
“The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth,” he asserted. “The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years and the number of carjackings has more than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate, probably ever.”
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” he lamented.
Del. Elanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., called Trump’s decision to federalize the police force and send in the National Guard a “historic assault on D.C. home rule” and an “escalatory seizure of D.C.’s resources to use for purposes not supported by D.C. residents.” She called it “more evidence of the urgent need” to pass a D.C. statehood bill.
“Crime in D.C. reached a 30-year low in 2024 and is down 26% this year compared to the same time period last year,” Holmes Norton said in a statement. “The administration is justifying the decision by misleadingly citing years-old statistics.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back on Trump’s assertions that the city is facing a crime spike and questioned the president’s use of the National Guard.
“They’re not law enforcement officials,” Bowser told MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Sunday. “These are men and women who leave their families to serve our country, and that is just not their primary role to enforce local laws.”
The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee plans to call on Bowser and other D.C. officials to testify about crime within its borders. Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., contends that Trump “rightly” used executive power to “crack down on crime and restore law and order in Washington, D.C.”
“For years, the D.C. Council’s radical, soft-on-crime agenda has emboldened criminals and put public safety at risk in our nation’s capital,” Comer said.
Sources within the Metropolitan Police Department told WUSA9 that Bowser and Police Chief Pamela Smith were not given advanced notice about Trump’s plan to federalize the police force and only thought the announcement would be about the National Guard deployment.
Trump shared plans to aesthetically improve Washington by replacing potholes and deteriorating infrastructure, as well as removing homeless encampments from public parks.
The president blamed the high crime rate in Washington, D.C. on policies embraced by the city, including its sanctuary city status that shields illegal immigrants from deportation and the abolition of cash bail.
Trump had previously hinted at taking action to reduce crime in Washington, D.C. last week when he published a post on Truth Social warning that “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”
The president elaborated on his plans in a Truth Social post Monday, promising to “MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN” and that “Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR.”
In March, Trump signed an executive order titled “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” where he established a “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force” and established it as “the policy of the United States to make the District of Columbia safe, beautiful, and prosperous by preventing crime, punishing criminals, preserving order, protecting our revered American monuments, and promoting beautification and the preservation of our history and heritage.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
