By David Klepper
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is promising new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington including deployment of the National Guard, prompting the city’s mayor to voice legal concerns about who would be patrolling the streets in the nation’s capital.
Trump said at a Monday news briefing that he was “deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law order and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.”
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The Republican president compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others.
“We’re getting rid of the slums, too,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. would not lose its cities and that Washington was just a start.
For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement plan after his push to stop illegal border crossings. The move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials as well as the National Guard.
Combating crime
Trump said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy members of the National Guard.
About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of the Trump administration’s effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday.
More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are also contributing officers.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment Monday morning.
Focusing on homelessness
Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go.
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote Sunday. “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.”
Last week, the president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option “to extend as needed.”
On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington.
Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was “ridiculous” and the city was “unsafe,” after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Crime statistics
Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.
Trump offered no details in Truth Social posts over the weekend about possible new actions to address crime levels he argues are dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers alike. The White House declined to offer additional details about Monday’s announcement.
The police department and the mayor’s office did not respond to questions about what Trump might do next.
The president criticized the district as full of “tents, squalor, filth, and Crime,” and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others.
“This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,” Trump said Wednesday.
He called D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser “a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.”
Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining. It could face steep pushback.
Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city’s police, but only if certain conditions are met.
Could a federal takeover of D.C. law enforcement help address crime more effectively?
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Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil, Alanna Durkin Richer and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
