National Guard Troops Arrive in Washington After Trump Declares Federal Control

By Joseph Lord, 08/12/25 

National Guard troops started arriving in Washington on Tuesday to begin enforcing President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement and security. They’re part of an 800-member deployment ordered by the administration.

Trump announced on Monday that he would activate the guard and take over the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, citing a crime emergency in the city.

Speaking ahead of the National Guard troops’ arrival, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president’s emergency proclamation “is only the beginning.”

She said: “Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the district who breaks the law, undermines public safety, and endangers law-abiding Americans.”

Leavitt said Tuesday that the addition of National Guardsmen to the federalized D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) would assist to “end violent crime in our nation’s capital as part of the President’s massive law enforcement surge.”

Trump: "We're Gonna Take Our Capital Back"

By Leif Le Mahieu

President Donald Trump promised on Monday to clean up crime and vagrancy in the nation’s capital by shifting more responsibilities over the district to the federal government. 

Trump made the announcement during a press conference at the White House, where he laid out a number of executive actions he was taking to fight violent crime, decrease homelessness, and otherwise clean up Washington, D.C. 

“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,” Trump said. “
This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re gonna take our capital back. We’re taking it back.” 

Trump on Monday invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and declared a public emergency. This granted him to move the D.C. Police Department under the control of the Justice Department. DEA Administrator Terry Cole will head the department, per Trump’s orders. 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and U.S. District Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro all appeared alongside Trump at the news conference.

Trump Threatens to Federalize D.C. over Lax Approach to Minors Committing Crimes

President Donald Trump on Wednesday floated the idea of sending the National Guard to Washington, D.C., as part of his potential plan to take over the federal city to crack down on crimes committed by minors.

Trump threatened to end D.C. home rule on Tuesday if the city did not step up when it comes to prosecuting minors who commit serious crimes. Trump claimed the city's lenient attitudes toward underaged criminals had emboldened them.

The threats come after former 19-year-old Department of Government Efficiency staffer Edward Coristine was assaulted by an alleged group of juveniles over the weekend who were apparently trying to carjack a vehicle in Northwest D.C.

Trump was asked whether he would consider taking over Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department as a means to boost law enforcement activity in the capital, to which the president responded he was considering it, NBC News reported.

“We’re considering it. Yeah, because the crime is — is ridiculous,” Trump told reporters. “We have a capital that’s very unsafe, you know, we just almost lost a young man. Beautiful, handsome guy that got the hell knocked out of him the night before last.