President Donald Trump announced Monday his plan to activate hundreds of National Guard troops and federalize the Metropolitan Police Department to address violent crime in the District of Columbia.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” the president told reporters in the White House press briefing room Monday morning. “We’re taking it back under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States. I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, you know what that is, and placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.”
“In addition, I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law and order of public safety in Washington, D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” he continued.
White House officials say Trump will mobilize roughly 800 troops to assist the MPD with logistics, transportation, and guarding federal and law enforcement facilities. The troops will not have the authority to make arrests, but they may detain suspects until local law enforcement officials arrive to make arrests. The federalization is expected to last 30 days, according to the White House.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to the president, will lead the federalized MPD alongside Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole, who will serve as the federal interim MPD commissioner.
Though city officials have touted a precipitous decline in violent crimes since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a 34% drop in 2024 and a 28% decrease across the first six months of this year, a D.C. police commander was suspended last month after accusing MPD Chief Pamela Smith and other top department brass of falsely manipulating crime statistics.
The president also previewed a number of additional steps to address crime, including declaring a public safety emergency for the district, breaking up homeless encampments on federal properties, and mobilizing even more National Guard assets if needed. Furthermore, he called on Congress to pass legislation outlawing “no cash bail,” which he claimed has contributed to post-COVID-19 crime spikes in Washington and other major cities.
Trump stood firm on his threat to take over the district last week after Edward Coristine, a former Department of Government Efficiency engineer who goes by the nickname “Big Balls,” was allegedly assaulted by juvenile offenders during a carjacking in Dupont Circle, a well-to-do neighborhood.
His threat was accompanied by an order from last Friday to increase federal law enforcement presence in Washington.
Before the attack on Coristine, Trump signed an executive order in March that created a task force for the administration and D.C. Council to collaborate on, among other policies, law enforcement, including immigration enforcement. The order also directed investment in the district’s police workforce and facilities, such as a forensic crime laboratory.
About 800 National Guard soldiers will be activated, though only 100 to 200 soldiers will be supporting local law enforcement at any given time. Their duties will include administrative, logistics, and physical presence in support of law enforcement, according to an Army spokesperson.
The president has used this authority to activate the DC National Guard before, including post-9/11 security, disaster relief operations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and during the 2020 summer protests.
The Pentagon also authorized the DC National Guard when a mob of protesters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to prevent Congress from certifying former President Joe Biden’s electoral win over Trump. More than 140 police officers were injured in the siege, and Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 defendants when he returned to office in January.
The DC Police Union supports the takeover, but only on a “temporary” basis to help out officers who are “stretched beyond their limits” in dealing with a “crime crisis.”
Trump has the power to federalize D.C. police, but a takeover lasting longer than 30 days requires congressional sign-off.
Trump has a complicated relationship with the district, whose residents welcomed his first term with widespread protests.
At the same time, Trump’s threat to take over the district is curtailed by its being governed by Article I of the Constitution and the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973.
Under that framework, the mayor and council oversee the district, but Congress has the right to review and repeal its laws and budget and appoint its judges. The most recent example of Congress reviewing and repealing a local law, in 2023, also concerned crime.
Trump’s threat to take over the district is not unprecedented.
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The last time the federal government effectively took over the district was in 1995, when then-President Bill Clinton signed the Republican-endorsed District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Act into law in response to then-Mayor Marion Barry. That legislation established the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, which managed the district’s finances until 2001.
Trump’s action coincides with Congress declining to pass legislation addressing a $1.1 billion funding shortfall that it introduced into the district’s budget with its continuing resolution, a stopgap spending measure to keep the federal government open beyond March.
