Trump intends to dispatch National Guard troops to Washington DC with the goal of reasserting lawfulness and order.
In early August 2025, Donald Trump announced a plan to deploy the D.C. National Guard and National Guard troops from three Republican-led states to Washington, D.C. The stated goal was to crack down on violent crime in the city. This deployment is part of a broader, aggressive federal approach to using military and National Guard forces for domestic law enforcement missions.
Key details of the plan include:
- Deployment Scope: Trump arranged for additional Guard units from outside D.C. to be sent to the city. The exact scope, mission details, and duration of each unit’s deployment remain unclear.
- Legal Authorities: The Trump administration pursued a maximalist legal strategy, relying on four relatively untested and complex laws and doctrines. These include authorities under 502(f) of the National Guard regulations, 32 U.S.C. 12406, the "protective power," and the unique legal status of the D.C. National Guard in local law enforcement. This legal framework has not been fully tested in court and raises significant questions about its legitimacy and limits.
- Control Over Police: While the sources do not explicitly detail Trump taking direct control over the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, the federalization of Guard troops and use of federal law enforcement in D.C. represents an unprecedented federal intrusion into local law enforcement matters. This suggests a de facto assertion of greater federal control over policing in the city.
- Addressing Crime and Homelessness: The immediate official purpose stated was to curb violent crime. There is no specific publicly available detail on plans or measures to directly tackle homelessness within this deployment framework.
- Political and Legal Context: Washington, D.C., is predominantly Democratic, and the deployment has raised concerns and questions about the motivation, political intent, legality, and potential implications for civil liberties and local governance.
In recent days, Donald Trump has declared a "public safety emergency" in the district, directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option to extend as needed, and announced the deployment of 800 National Guard troops. The purpose of deploying National Guard troops, according to Trump, is to "re-establish law, order, and public safety" in Washington D.C.
Trump has also stated that the murder rate in DC is higher than in some of the "worst places on earth." However, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser stated that the city had reached a 30-year low in violent crime, not just from a post-pandemic peak in 2023, but from 2019 levels prior to the pandemic.
Hakeem Jeffries, Minority leader of the US House of Representatives, has stated that Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department and has zero credibility on the issue of law and order. The deployment of National Guard troops is intended to make Washington DC "one of the safest, cleanest and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world."
The US capital's streets will be under federal control, according to Donald Trump. On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI, and the US Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington. The deployment of National Guard troops is a historic action, according to Donald Trump, but the specifics of the plan and its implications remain a topic of ongoing debate and concern.
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