President Donald Trump has announced a sweeping federal intervention in Washington, D.C., ordering the deployment of National Guard troops and assuming direct control over the city’s police department. The move, framed by the president as a decisive response to crime, comes despite official statistics showing significant declines in violent offenses in recent years.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” Mr. Trump declared at a White House press conference, earlier today August 11, 2025. “This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”
The President, flanked by senior officials including Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and FBI Director Kash Patel, said he was invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 to place the Metropolitan Police Department “under direct federal control.” Bondi, he said, would assume immediate authority over the department. He also declared a public safety emergency in the district.
“In addition, I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” he stated.
Defense Secretary Hegseth confirmed that the Guard had been mobilized on Monday morning and would “flow into the streets of Washington in the coming week.”
Local police data show robberies are down 28% and violent crime has fallen 26% in 2025 as of August 11. The Justice Department reported last year that violent crime in the capital reached its lowest level in more than three decades. Nevertheless, Mr. Trump dismissed the statistics as “phony numbers” and asserted that crime “directly impacts the functioning of the federal government and is a threat to America, really.”
“We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” the president said. “We’re not going to lose our cities over this.”
Mr. Trump vowed that the initiative “will go further,” beginning with a strong push in Washington, D.C., which he said his administration would “clean up real quick.” He described the city’s condition as “complete and total lawlessness” and “embarrassing” ahead of his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
Citing recent violent incidents, including the alleged assault of a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer, Mr. Trump said the administration had already begun dismantling homeless encampments and increasing federal law enforcement presence. The Metropolitan Police, federal agencies, and 800 D.C. National Guardsmen would work jointly, with the possibility of deploying active-duty servicemembers if necessary.
“If necessary, we’re going to move servicemembers directly to joining the guardsmen,” he said.
The President noted that about 450 federal law enforcement officers had been sent into the city overnight Sunday. On social media, he pledged to “make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border.”
Mr. Trump has previously ordered National Guard deployments, including to Los Angeles during immigration protests in June and to D.C. in 2020 following the death of George Floyd. Earlier this year, he created the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force” to address public safety.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser challenged the president’s portrayal of the city, telling MSNBC that “we are not experiencing a crime spike” and noting that federal law enforcement already operates alongside local police. While acknowledging that “the D.C. National Guard is the President’s National Guard,” Bowser said she had discussed crime issues with him “repeatedly.”
In a follow-up social media post, Mr. Trump said Bowser “is a good person who has tried” but argued that crime had worsened and the city had grown “dirtier and less attractive.”
“The American Public is not going to put up with it any longer,” he wrote. “Just like I took care of the Border, where you had ZERO Illegals coming across last month, from millions the year before, I will take care of our cherished Capital, and we will make it, truly, GREAT AGAIN! Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the World.”
