Trump takes over DC police, deploys National Guard
The president blames the takeover on rising crime, though official figures contradict this concern
What happened
President Donald Trump Monday announced a temporary federal takeover of Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department and the deployment of 800 National Guard troops to tackle what he called a "situation of complete and total lawlessness" in the capital. D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump's assumption of emergency powers "unsettling and unprecedented."
Who said what
Trump's federalization of D.C.'s police and the National Guard deployment are an "extraordinary flex of federal power" that "stripped" city leaders of their ability to direct law enforcement and could "expose" Washingtonians to "unpredictable encounters with a domestically deployed military force," The Washington Post said. This wielding of "executive authority in ways with little precedent in modern U.S. history and in defiance of political norms" is "emblematic" of Trump's "second-term approach" to governing, Reuters said.
Trump's "dystopian picture" of a capital city "overrun by violent crime and anarchy" stands "in sharp contrast to official figures" showing violent crime there is "at a 30-year-low," The New York Times said, and many Washington residents are "unlikely to recognize" his depiction.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing alongside Trump Monday, "signaled that more National Guard troops could be roped into the deployment down the line," said Fox News. The Army said the Guard members deployed to D.C. would participate in an "array of tasks," including "administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement."
What next?
The "previously unused provision" of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act that Trump activated allows him to "take over Washington's police department for up to 30 days if he notifies certain heads of congressional committees," Politico said. Trump also "threatened to expand his efforts to other cities, including Chicago, if they did not deal with crime rates he claimed were 'out of control,'" the Times said. But his "authority to intervene elsewhere would be more limited."
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