Watch Live: Trump announces deployment of National Guard to D.C.

Washington — President Trump on Monday said that the federal government has taken control of local law enforcement in Washington, D.C., and he will deploy members of the National Guard as part of a push to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital, despite data showing crime has declined in the city in recent years.

“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference at the White House. “This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”

Flanked by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel Patel, Mr. Trump said he was officially enforcing Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department “under direct federal control.” He said Bondi was taking control of the department immediately. He also said he was declaring a public safety emergency in the district.

“In addition, I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” Mr. Trump said. 

Hegseth said the Guard was formally mobilized Monday morning and would be “flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week.”

Violent crime in D.C. has been declining for the last year and a half after spiking in 2023, according to local police data. So far this year, robberies have dropped by 28% and overall violent crime is down 26%, as of Aug. 11. Last year, violent crime in the capital city hit its lowest level in more than 30 years, the Justice Department said.

The president criticized what he called “phony numbers” on crime in D.C., saying the administration would “look into that.” And he said the crime issue “directly impacts the functioning of the federal government and is a threat to America, really.”

“We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re not going to lose our cities over this.”

The president said the effort “will go further,” saying the administration is “starting very strongly with D.C.” and “we’re going to clean it up real quick.”

“It’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness,” the president added. He called it “embarrassing” for him to be “up here talking about how unsafe and dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was,” ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The moves came after the administration deployed about 450 federal law enforcement officers from a number of agencies across D.C. overnight Sunday. The president pledged in a social media post Sunday that he would “make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.” 

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border.”

Last week, the White House announced that it had boosted the presence of federal law enforcement in the district after the alleged assault of a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer, as Mr. Trump threatened a federal takeover of the city. 

The move to deploy the National Guard and federalize the MPD comes after the president signed a memorandum deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles in June amid heated protests over immigration raids. Mr. Trump also deployed the National Guard in June 2020 to D.C. to quell protests after the death of George Floyd. 

In March, Mr. Trump signed an executive order establishing a “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.” He has said violent crime must be stopped in the District, claiming that it “has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back on the characterization on MSNBC on Sunday, noting that violent crime is down.

“We are not experiencing a crime spike,” Bowser said. 

The mayor said she has talked with Mr. Trump “repeatedly” about crime and that “the president is very aware of our efforts.” Bowser acknowledged Sunday that “the D.C. National Guard is the president’s National Guard, so that’s always his prerogative.” And she noted that “federal law enforcement is always on the street in D.C. and we always work cooperatively with them.”

In another post later Sunday, the president said Bowser “is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive.”

“The American Public is not going to put up with it any longer,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Just like I took care of the Border, where you had ZERO Illegals coming across last month, from millions the year before, I will take care of our cherished Capital, and we will make it, truly, GREAT AGAIN! Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the World.”

Weijia Jiang

contributed to this report.