National guard begins deploying on DC streets after Trump police takeover

 

National guard begins deploying on DC streets after Trump police takeover

 

Troops start appearing in nation’s capital on Tuesday night as president’s move widely condemned

 

David Smith in Washington

Wed 13 Aug 2025 01.40 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/12/mayor-national-guard-washington-dc

 

The Washington DC national guard will begin deploying on the city’s streets on Tuesday night, a day after Donald Trump ordered their arrival and took control of the city’s police force, calling Washington DC a “lawless” city, despite official crime statistics saying otherwise, a White House official confirmed.

 

The national guard is expected to “begin being on the streets starting tonight”. Defense officials said a small number of the roughly 800 guard members planned for the mission had already been mobilized by Tuesday afternoon, with more expected to arrive in the coming days.

 

About 850 officers and agents took part in a “massive law enforcement surge” across Washington DC on Monday night and made nearly two dozen arrests, the White House has said. The violent crime rate in Washington DC is at a 30-year low.

 

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday: “As part of the president’s massive law enforcement surge, last night approximately 850 officers and agents were surged across the city. They made a total of 23 arrests, including multiple other contacts.”

 

The arrests consisted of homicide, firearms offences, possession with intent to distribute narcotics, fare evasion, lewd acts and stalking, Leavitt added. “A total of six illegal handguns were seized off of District of Columbia’s streets as part of last night’s effort.”

 

Leavitt added: “This is only the beginning. 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.”

 

Earlier, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC, said she expected members of the national guard to be deployed on federal property in the nation’s capital.

 

“My expectation, though it can change, is that they will deploy the guard on federal properties. That includes parks, monuments, federal buildings,” Bowser said on a community chat on X.

 

The press secretary also told reporters that homeless people have the option be taken to a homeless shelter and offered addiction and/or mental health services. “If they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time. These are pre-existing laws that are already on the books. They have not been enforced.”

 

Trump’s intervention has been widely condemned as an authoritarian power grab that undermines the autonomy of Washington’s DC local government and seeks to distract attention from political problems such as the Jeffrey Epstein files.

 

Bowser had earlier pledged to work “side by side” with the federal government as national guard troops arrived at their headquarters in the capital.

 

Speaking after a meeting with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, at the justice department, Bowser told reporters: “I won’t go into the details of our operational plan at this point but you will see the Metropolitan police department (MPD) working side by side with our federal partners in order to enforce the effort that we need around the city.”

 

Bowser has cultivated a delicate working relationship with Trump since his return to power in January, avoiding direct confrontations when possible. On Tuesday, she struck a conciliatory note and said she would try to make the most of the extra resources to fight crime.

 

“What I’m focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the additional officer support that we have,” she said. “We have the best in the business at MPD and chief Pamela Smith to lead that effort and to make sure that the men and women who are coming from federal law enforcement are being well used and that, if there is national guard here, that they’re being well used and all in an effort to drive down crime.

 

“So, how we got here or what we think about the circumstances right now, we have more police and we want to make sure we’re using them.”

 

However, other Democratic mayors across the country have adopted a different tone, warning Trump against expanding his law and order power grab in other major cities.

 

Trump told reporters on Monday: “We have other cities also that are bad,” citing the Democratic strongholds of Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. “And then, of course, you have Baltimore and Oakland. You don’t even mention them any more, they’re so far gone.”

 

Stephen Miller, an influential White House deputy chief of staff, stepped up the rhetoric on Tuesday, tweeting without evidence: “Crime stats in big blue cities are fake. The real rates of crime, chaos & dysfunction are orders of magnitude higher. Everyone who lives in these areas knows this. They program their entire lives around it. Democrats are trying to unravel civilization. Pres Trump will save it.”

 

All five cities named by Trump are run by Black mayors. Most were outspoken in denouncing the president’s move. Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, said in a statement: “Sending in the national guard would only serve to destabilize our city and undermine our public safety efforts.”

 

Brandon Scott, the mayor of Baltimore, said: “When it comes to public safety in Baltimore, he should turn off the rightwing propaganda and look at the facts. Baltimore is the safest it’s been in over 50 years.”

 

Barbara Lee, the mayor of Oakland, wrote on X: “President Trump’s characterization of Oakland is wrong and based in fear-mongering in an attempt to score cheap political points.”

 

Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, where troops were sent earlier this month in a crackdown on protests, posted: “Another experiment by the Administration, another power grab from local government. This is performative. This is a stunt. It always has been and always will be.”

 

Trump took command of the Washington DC police department and deployed the national guard under laws and constitutional powers that give the federal government more sway over the nation’s capital than other cities. But Democrats raised concerns that Washington DC could be a blueprint for similar strong-arm tactics elsewhere.

 

Christina Henderson, a Washington DC at-large councilmember, told CNN on Tuesday: “I was listening to the president’s press conference yesterday, and I think it should be concerning to all Americans that he talked about other cities.

 

“The District of Columbia, for decades, without statehood, has always been used as a petri dish, where Congress or the federal government is trying out ideas here. So, I would hope that folks don’t lose sight of what’s happening in the district. And even if they don’t live here, they fight hard with us.”

 

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, warned that Trump “will gaslight his way into militarising any city he wants in America”.

 

JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, said the president “has absolutely no right and no legal ability to send troops into the city of Chicago, and so I reject that notion”.

 

He added: “You’ve seen that he doesn’t follow the law. I have talked about the fact that the Nazis in Germany in the 30s tore down a constitutional republic in just 53 days. It does not take much, frankly, and we have a president who seems hell-bent on doing just that.”

 

Coral Murphy Marcos contributed to this report