President Donald Trump on Monday said he is putting the Washington, D.C. police force under federal control and mobilizing the National Guard to promote safety in the nation's capital.
Trump has vowed fresh measures to combat homelessness and crime in Washington, D.C., a measure that has triggered an eyebrow-raising response from the city mayor over the possibility of using the National Guard for street patrols.
Before a planned news conference, Trump announced on social media Monday that the capital would be "LIBERATED today!" He promised to end the "days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people."
For Trump, the move to take charge of public safety in Washington is an extension of his hard-line law enforcement policies after his aggressive attempts to stem illegal border crossings. But sending at least 500 federal law enforcement agents into Washington has important implications about how the more aggressive federal government will collaborate with state and local leaders.
Although the president has employed his social media accounts and the White House podium to showcase a hard-line crime strategy, his influence on policing in Washington — a federal district ruled by special congressional legislation — is still in doubt. It is also uncertain how his plan will succeed in remedying the causes of homelessness and crime.
The source said that about 500 federal agents are to be deployed throughout Washington as part of the administration's crime-fighting effort.
They include more than 100 FBI agents, and around 40 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Marshals Service are also sending officers.
The source, not permitted to discuss personnel matters publicly, asked to be identified anonymously. The Justice Department had no comment Monday morning.
Trump reiterated on Sunday his promise to send the homeless population away from Washington, but specific information on where these people would be sent is still unknown.
"The Homeless must move out, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote. "We will provide you with places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you do not need to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong."
Last week, Trump directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase the number of agents in the city for seven days, with the ability to extend this period "as needed."
Friday evening, federal authorities such as the Secret Service, FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service sent more than 120 agents and officers to help out in Washington.
After an attack last week on a top Department of Government Efficiency official, Trump called the city "unsafe" and "ridiculous" when it comes to crime, and said he was looking into methods for the federal government to become responsible for law enforcement in the district.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, was skeptical that the use of the National Guard to enforce local law would be effective. She recommended that federal aid would have more impact if it was targeted on funding prosecutors or filling deep vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court.
Bowser is not authorized to call in the National Guard herself but can ask for assistance from the Pentagon.
"I just don't think that's the best deployment of our Guard," Bowser said Sunday on MSNBC's "The Weekend," while conceding it ultimately "is the president's decision about how to put the Guard out."
This was Bowser's first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She explained that violent crime in the city has gone down after spiking in 2023, as opposed to Trump's characterization of Washington as "one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World."
For Bowser, "Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.
Data from local police shows that homicides, robberies, and burglaries are down this year compared to 2024, with an overall 26% drop in violent crime.
Over the weekend, Trump’s social media posts did not provide specifics on new measures to combat crime, which he has described as a danger to residents, visitors, and workers alike. The White House declined to elaborate on Monday’s announcement.
Neither the police department nor the mayor's office commented on potential next steps from the president in response to a request for comment.
Trump condemned Washington as overrun with "tents, squalor, filth, and Crime," seemingly prompted by the attack on Edward Coristine, a senior official in the bureaucracy-cutting program DOGE. Authorities arrested two 15-year-olds in connection with the attempted carjacking and are looking for other suspects.
This must be the best run city in the nation, not the worst run city in the nation," Trump stated on Wednesday.
He called Mayor Bowser "a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.
Trump has repeatedly hinted that power over Washington might be brought back to federal hands. It would take revoking the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress — something Trump stated lawyers are now examining — to make this happen, but one predicts it will be strongly opposed.
Bowser did admit the law does give the president leverage to take more control over the city's police under certain conditions.
"None of those situations are present in our city currently," she said. "We are not seeing an increase in crime. Actually, we're seeing our numbers for crime decrease."
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