Last week, President Donald Trump took the drastic step of deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and federalizing the city’s local Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). This comes after years of threats to take over the nation’s capital that have increased in recent weeks. Hundreds of federal law enforcement have taken to the city’s streets in the past week, wearing face masks and engaging in dangerous tactics that serve to instill fear and intimidate residents. National Guard troops from at least three states will soon join hundreds of Guard members already in Washington, D.C., mostly clustered around federal property. While the Trump administration touts arrest and immigration numbers, these deployments are an abuse of power that fail to address the district’s real public safety priorities.
President Trump is leveraging both his direct command over the District of Columbia National Guard and specific emergency authority over MPD for federal purposes to justify his actions. But it appears that he is preying on people’s legitimate concerns about crime and safety to make the nation’s capital a test case for potential future actions that could turn both the military and police against the public and stifle public dissent. This authoritarian power grab comes at a time when the Trump administration is increasingly unpopular with the American people and is enacting policies that hurt them, including instituting tariff policies that are causing rising prices, cutting health care and food assistance benefits for millions of Americans, and making it harder for communities to weather and respond to natural disasters.
President Trump’s desperate attempt to distract the American people from his failing agenda is now coinciding with his administration’s dangerous attack on local policing in Washington, D.C., and will threaten public safety in the nation’s capital. Those working on the front lines—police officers, community members, and local leaders—know how vital community trust is and dedicate themselves to protecting the safety of their city every day. Stripping control of public safety from local leaders threatens that trust and stymies the very real solutions that have been working to drive down crime in the city and across the country in recent years. The Trump administration’s overreach is not going to make Washington, D.C. safer and is dangerous political theater that imperils democracy in the nation’s capital and beyond.
The Trump administration’s recent executive actions are a danger to democracy and public safety
Washington, D.C.’s lack of statehood has made it no stranger to federal overreach, from recent attempts to repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to interfering with the local budget to overturning and impeding legislation that has been passed by the city’s duly elected leaders. On Aug. 11, 2025, President Trump took it a step further by deploying the National Guard and issuing the executive order (EO) “Declaring a Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia.” This EO invokes Section 740 of the home rule act to require the services of the MPD for federal purposes only a few days after President Trump pulled hundreds of federal law enforcement off critical crime-fighting and national security duties to conduct street patrols of the nation’s capital.
Section 740 gives the president only limited and temporary powers to direct the mayor to provide the services of MPD for federal purposes after the president determines that “special conditions of an emergency nature exist. Authority over the MPD lapses after just 48 hours unless the president notifies Congress, and a joint resolution is required to extend the authority for more than 30 days. These time provisions and congressional approvals act as important checks on federal powers, however Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has already introduced a resolution to extend beyond the 30-day period. Furthermore, last week the Trump administration unsuccessfully attempted to wrest control of the MPD away from the city’s police chief—a move that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to walk back after negotiations required by a federal judge.
Despite declining violent crime in the nation’s capital, President Trump has exploited people’s valid fears about crime and their real desire for public safety by declaring an unfounded “crime emergency” as grounds for his federal power grab. The city saw declines in all major crime categories in 2024, and violent crime was down in all eight wards. Ensuring the safety of all those who live, work, and visit the district has remained a top priority for local leaders and community members alike. Taking power away from those who know the needs of their city and are best suited to serve its communities erodes public trust and jeopardizes public safety.
Because of its designation as a federal district, close collaborative relationships between MPD and federal law enforcement already exist. For example, MPD, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are already partnering to get illegal guns off the street through the Violent Crime Impact Team. President Trump’s decision to place Attorney General Pam Bondi—a political appointee with limited knowledge of the city’s communities—in a position to direct requests to MPD to further the Trump administration’s goals politicizes the necessary work of reducing crime in the district.
MPD officers are not the only ones taking on new roles. Federal officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, DEA, ATF, and the U.S. Marshals Service, among many other agencies, have been taken away from their important enforcement duties across the country and reassigned to the streets of Washington, D.C., to respond to a nonexistent “emergency.” They are being reassigned from investigations into public corruption, counterintelligence, or drug trafficking—among other matters—to conduct street patrols. Many of these federal law enforcement officers are not trained in the city’s local law or patrol tactics, potentially putting themselves or the public at risk.
The Trump administration also mobilized approximately 800 D.C. National Guard troops. These troops are expected to provide administrative and logistical support to law enforcement but also may participate in patrols, be stationed outside federal buildings, and assist with other public enforcement actions, potentially putting them in a position for which they have not been trained. Unlike other states—where the National Guard is under the command of the governor—the D.C. National Guard is under the command of the president, meaning that National Guard troops can perform law enforcement functions when federalized, a loophole of the Posse Comitatus Act. Although the Trump administration has said these National Guard troops will not conduct law enforcement activities, the administration also has threatened to expand these deployments. The D.C. National Guard troops will soon be joined by several hundred troops from at least three states without ties to the region, all mobilized by Republican governors to support the Trump administration’s takeover of Washington, D.C., patrols. This confusion over authorities, command and control, and arming status puts troops, law enforcement, and the public at risk.
The Trump administration’s deployment of federal forces is an abuse of power
President Trump has long sought to deploy the military at home, often targeting his perceived political enemies. He deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., during the 2020 racial justice protests, again over the objections of the mayor and local officials. In June 2025, he federalized California’s National Guard and deployed Marines to Los Angeles to respond to protests against his immigration agenda. President Trump had argued that the troops were necessary to protect federal property and functions, even though local authorities reiterated that they did not require or request federal assistance. The Trump administration claims that these deployed troops were not directly conducting law enforcement activities, but they have detained bystanders and accompanied U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement on immigration raids—a potential violation of the Posse Comitatus Act that is being challenged in court. This case, Newsom v. Trump, could put additional limits on the administration’s ability to deploy the military at home.
What happened in LA—and now in Washington, D.C.—could soon go nationwide. The Trump administration recently authorized state National Guard forces in 20 states to assist ICE with deportation operations and threatened more military and federal forces deployments across the country. The administration’s reassignment of federal law enforcement officers to support interior immigration enforcement raids has already resulted in a wide range of unprofessional policing, alleged misconduct, and arrests of bystanders and citizens. On Aug. 11, 2025, President Trump suggested that his administration may expand federal deployments to cities including Chicago; New York; LA; Oakland, California; and Baltimore. The following day, a media report stated that the Trump administration is reviewing plans for a “quick reaction force” of National Guard troops that could eventually deploy to U.S. cities on short notice to respond to civil unrest scenarios.
President Trump is engaged in dangerous political theater and making Washington, D.C., and other communities less safe
As noted above, the Trump administration appears to be engaged in dangerous political theater instead of actually trying to enhance public safety in Washington, D.C. The administration could have implemented a range of policies and taken several actions to meaningfully help reduce crime in the nation’s capital, including urging Congress to stop blocking the district’s local budget—which contains crime-fighting funds—prioritizing filling numerous judicial vacancies in the D.C. courts that oversee criminal proceedings, or restoring funding to vital crime prevention programs.
Instead, the administration’s decisions to exercise wide control over the MPD and deploy the National Guard—a move rejected by the mayor and city council—as well as deploying federal agents, seem to be a brazen federal power grab centered on suppressing dissent and crippling local authority. A favorite tool of authoritarians around the world is preying upon people’s fears and invoking emergency powers to mask the government’s attempts to solidify power and effectuate an increasingly unpopular political agenda. As the Center for American Progress has written, when leaders use the military to police their populace instead of defending the nation, militaries “risk becoming tools of state repression.”
Moreover, President Trump’s decision to federalize the MPD and deploy the National Guard is at sharp odds with his prior decisions. During the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, President Trump failed to order deployment of the National Guard to help stop the violent mob he had directed toward the Capitol despite requests from congressional leaders—a deployment that would have been necessary and lawful to boost public safety in the nation’s capital on that day. Four years later—shortly after being sworn in for a second term—President Trump granted clemency to nearly 1,600 insurrectionists, many of whom were convicted of violently beating police officers who were defending the Capitol and the persons inside. And just last month, the Trump administration appointed a Capitol rioter—who shouted “Kill ‘em! Kill ‘em!” during the attack on officers—to a key position in the DOJ. Furthermore, these actions distract from the myriad ways the Trump administration is making communities less safe, including historic cuts to crime prevention, health care, and food assistance.
Conclusion
Everyone deserves to be safe from crime and violence, whether they live and work in the nation’s capital, in large cities, or in rural areas across the country. Deploying National Guard troops or co-opting local police officers as part of an authoritarian policy agenda will not achieve that goal. Real solutions involve supporting local police in their efforts to investigate and solve serious crimes, fostering trust between the police and communities they serve, and investing in crime prevention and intervention programs that work. President Trump’s recent actions in Washington, D.C., are dangerous political theater and serve as a distraction from the countless ways his administration is harming public safety, from pulling federal law enforcement away from their crime-fighting duties to carry out his political agenda, to imposing devastating cuts to community-based programs that have been shown to reduce crime, to pardoning violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol and attacked police officers on January 6, 2021.
In response to the president’s actions, Congress should pass a joint resolution to end this manufactured emergency, and at the very least stand against any extension beyond the initial 30-day period. Congress should also oppose any further threats to the District of Columbia’s home rule and show a real commitment to public safety by restoring $1 billion in funding recently stripped from the city’s budget that would have supported police, firefighters, and other vital city services. Moreover, Congress should pass legislation that would make the mayor the commander-in-chief of the D.C. National Guard, consistent with other states and territories and giving the district more control over how guard troops are utilized when deployed in the community. To grant the 700,000 taxpaying residents of the nation’s capital the right to be represented and have their voices heard, Congress must also work toward the goal of full statehood for Washington, D.C. All of these actions would help build a stronger and more responsive democracy and send a clear signal that the nation will not tolerate a slide into autocracy.