WASHINGTON, DC- Finally fed up with crime ravaging our nation’s capital, President Donald Trump this week has decided to deploy the National Guard to flood the streets of Washington, DC, to help combat the city’s crime problem, the Daily Mail reports. On Sunday, federal agents, deployed as part of the crackdown, began making arrests.
“Be prepared! There will be no more ‘MR. NICE GUY.’ We want our Capital BACK,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
On Monday, the president announced the sweeping crackdown, placing the DC Metro Police under federal control and deploying the National Guard, The New York Post reported. The president warned that New York City could be next on his radar.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor–and worse. This is liberation day in DC and we’re going to take our capital back,” he told reporters at the White House.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people. And we’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re not going to take it.”
Photos taken Sunday night showed federal agencies deployed on the streets of DC, including FBI and Border Patrol agents, as well as Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents, who were spotted standing guard in Dupont Circle.
President Trump deployed 120 FBI agents to work in conjunction with DC Metro police and other federal law enforcement officers, the Daily Mail reported.
The president vowed to use the same tactics to clean up the nation’s capital as his administration did on the southern border.
“[We’ll] clean it up real quick, like we did on the southern border,” he said, alluding to the administration’s success with illegal immigration.
Under the Home Rule Act, passed in 1973, the president has the authority to seize emergency control of the Metro Police Department for 30 days.
Congress could pass a joint resolution to extend that control; however, with thin majorities in the House and Senate, that could prove difficult, especially given typical holdouts such as Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Thom Tillis (R-NC).
The White House on Monday sent documents formalizing the takeover, and officials are set to meet with DC Metro police officials in the afternoon.
Under the arrangement, Terry Cole, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, will temporarily lead the 3,400 officers of the MPD under the supervision of Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump announced.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t clear how the National Guard would be used in the capital, including how many and where they would be deployed. Early estimates said the force would number 1,000 and they would be used to supplement law enforcement, since Guard members do not have arrest authority, The Post reported.
In announcing his action Monday, President Trump displayed a chart showing DC has more murders per capita than capital cities in crime-ridden hellholes like Bogota, Colombia, and Mexico City, home of drug cartels, as well as terror hub Baghdad, Iraq.
“We doubled up on Baghdad,” the president said.
“You people are victims of it, too. You are reporters, and I understand a lot of you tend to be on the liberal side. But you don’t want to get mugged and raped and shot and killed. And you all know people, friends of yours, where that’s happened,” Trump said.
Several high-profile cases have spurred the president’s action, including an Aug. 3 attack on former DOGE staffer Edward “Big Ballz” Cooristine during a botched carjacking attack, and the June 30 murder of congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, killed in a drive-by shooting.
Trump also mentioned the 2023 carjacking of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and the near-fatal stabbing of an aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that same year, by what he called a “demented lunatic.”
The president also spoke about the shooting death of a three-year-old girl in July.
Trump also promised to clean up the city’s physical appearance, saying he wanted to beautify DC by fixing road medians, broken marble, and potholes.
‘We’re getting rid of the slums too…I know it’s not politically correct,” the president said, giving the appearance of wanting to rid the city of public housing in the city.
“We’re getting rid of the slums where they live,” he continued.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday said she would comply with the federal takeover.
‘I'm going to work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster, let me put it that way,” said Bowser, a Democrat, during a Monday press conference, calling the move “unsettling and unprecedented.”
“The main point is this: Everybody should follow the law, the police, and the community. And that’s the case now, it was the case last week, and it was the case the week before.”
Bowser expressed particular concern about ensuring “all law enforcement be identifiable by uniform, a badge, a jacket, so that people know that they are law enforcement.”
That has been a particular refrain from Democrats in response to the immigration crackdown, where they have accused the government, without proof, of “disappearing people” off the streets while wearing tactical gear.
Federalizing law enforcement agencies is nothing new, with police departments nationwide being put under federal control through “consent decrees.” Those cities included Phoenix, Ferguson (MO), Memphis, Chicago, and many others.
In Washington, DC, Metro Police Chief Pamela Smith admitted she had a meeting set for Monday afternoon with two federal officials, whom she did not name, about next steps.
She said she was looking forward to receiving federal help to enforce outstanding warrants for criminal suspects, noting that there are “things that the federal government is very useful for.”
“There will be an opportunity for us to come together and collaborate on being able to go out and execute warrants,” Smith said.
Bowser told MSNBC Sunday that the city “do[es] need the federal government’s help,” pointing out it needs assistance rebuilding the city’s jail. She added that crime rates are decreasing in the city, according to “official data.”
However, last month, DC police commander Michael Pulliam was suspended for allegedly falsifying crime data to make trends appear more positive, The Post reported.
The police union defended Pulliam, accusing MPD leadership of ordering subordinates to falsify violent crime data.
The union, meanwhile, also endorsed the federal takeover, telling Fox News: “We completely agree with the president that crime in the District of Columbia is out of control and something needs to be done with it.”
President Trump also turned his attention to other Democrat-run cities, specifically New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
“You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem,” the president said.
“We’re starting very strongly with DC, and we’re going to clean it up real quick, very quickly, as they say.”
Unlike most jurisdictions, the president directly controls DC’s National Guard.
“Washington, DC, should be one of the safest, cleanest, and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world,” Trump said, “and we’re going to make it that.”
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