Trump Federalizes DC Police, Deploys National Guard

President Trump on Monday announced plans to place the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control and to deploy several hundred National Guard troops and more than 100 FBI agents to the streets of Washington, D.C., to assist local law enforcement in fighting crime.

“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, squalor and worse,” Trump said during a press conference on Monday. “This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”

“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people,” he said.

Trump said the murder rate in D.C. is higher than some of the “worst places” in the world, including Bogota, Colombia.

Trump has the authority to take over the Metropolitan Police Department under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which includes a provision that grants him the ability to take over the department when there are “special conditions of an emergency nature.” As part of the federal takeover, Attorney General Pam Bondi will lead the department, while Terry Cole, the new DEA Administrator, will be the interim federal commissioner of the department.

On Friday, the Trump administration dispatched federal law enforcement officers to tourist hotspots around D.C. Trump has also threatened to federalize the district if crime rates do not fall and on Monday, he said he would send in the military, if needed.

However, despite Trump’s sudden focus on fighting crime in D.C., crime rates in the nation’s capital continue to fall, with violent crime in the city hitting a 30-year low earlier this year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department year-to-date crime comparison. (Trump, for his part, called into question the accuracy of those figures during his press conference on Monday.)

Trump’s focus on crime comes after ex-DOGE staffer “Big Balls” was violently assaulted by a group of teenagers in a carjacking attempt.

The White House has attributed any decrease in crime to an executive order Trump issued earlier this year “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.”

A senior police officer told the Washington Post that crime rates have declined “because of the hard work and dedication of MPD,” which has “little to do with recent federal law enforcement action.”

Violent crime in cities is down overall, and first began falling in 2022. Crime rates fell nationwide in 2024 according to FBI data, with a 4.5 percent decrease in violent crime. Homicides also dropped nearly 15 percent in 2024, and fell 17 percent in the first half of 2025.

Meanwhile, homicide rates in D.C. increased from 2017-21, before dropping sharply in 2022, and spiking again in 2023. The number of homicides in D.C. per year has been decreasing since 2023 — from 274 homicides in 2023, to 187 in 2024.

By August of 2024, the city had recorded 112 homicides. As of August 8, 2025, the city had recorded 99 homicides.