Live Updates: Trump Orders National Guard to Washington, D.C., and Takeover of City’s Police
"President Trump said 800 National Guard troops would be assigned to the nation’s capital, and that the approach might be expanded to other cities. His description of crime in Washington did not match official statistics.
Eric SchmittCampbell RobertsonKatie Rogers and Chris Cameron
Reporting from Washington
President Trump said on Monday that he was taking federal control of the police department in Washington, D.C., and deploying 800 National Guard troops to fight crime there, a significant escalation of his efforts to exert authority over the nation’s capital. He also threatened to expand those efforts to other cities, including Chicago, if they did not deal with crime rates he claimed were “out of control.”
Speaking from the White House briefing room, the president painted a dystopian picture of Washington — including “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs of wild youth” — that stood in sharp contrast to official statistics. Federal officials announced in January that violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low.
Mr. Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi would oversee the federal takeover of the capital’s Metropolitan Police Department, adding that he was prepared to send the military into Washington “if needed.” He declared a public safety emergency and invoked a section of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act that grants him the authority to temporarily seize control of the department, but it was not immediately clear how long that takeover would remain in place.
Here’s what else to know:
D.C. deployment: Unlike a state’s governor, the District of Columbia does not have control over its National Guard, giving the president broad leeway to deploy those troops. The Trump administration also plans to temporarily reassign 120 F.B.I. agents in Washington to nighttime patrol duties as part of Mr. Trump’s crackdown, according to people familiar with the matter. Read more ›
Viral claim: Mr. Trump’s most recent threats to take control of Washington came after a prominent member of the Department of Government Efficiency, his federal cost-cutting initiative, reported being beaten in an attempted carjacking. Mr. Trump shared a photograph of the victim, Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old software engineer, on social media last week and wrote, “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City.”
Familiar targets: In decrying crime as out of control in cities across the country, he listed familiar targets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago but did not mention cities in red states with the highest murder rates: Memphis, St. Louis or New Orleans. He also ignored the most violent episode in the city’s recent history: the Jan. 6, 2021, riot as the Capitol, where his supporters sought to stop the certification of the 2020 election he lost. Mr. Trump pardoned hundreds of rioters, many of whom had already been convicted of crimes and were serving sentences before being immediately released in January.
Other deployments: This summer, Mr. Trump deployed nearly 5,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles with orders to help quell protests that had erupted over immigration raids and to protect the federal agents conducting them. All but about 250 of those National Guard troops have since been withdrawn. And in his first term, Mr. Trump called up National Guard soldiers and federal law enforcement personnel to forcibly clear peaceful protests during the Black Lives Matter protests after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
The president ends his news conference, ignoring shouted questions about the Epstein case and which Washington neighborhoods might see the National Guard on their streets.
Over one hour in, and this news conference has meandered from the federal takeover of Washington police to the meeting with Putin and the Russia-Ukraine war, tariffs against China, and talk about the president’s experience in real estate. Members of his cabinet are standing behind him.
Trump, perhaps acknowledging their unease, just tried to redirect the questioning back to Washington. But after a single question, he is talking about his meeting with Putin again."
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