Trump says he's placing Washington police under federal control and
activating the National Guard
[August 12, 2025]
By JOSH BOAK and DAVID KLEPPER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he’s taking over
Washington's police department and activating 800 members of the
National Guard in the hopes of reducing crime, even as city officials
stressed crime is already falling in the nation’s capital.
The president, flanked by his attorney general, his defense secretary
and the FBI director, said he was declaring a public safety emergency
and his administration would be removing homeless encampments.
“We’re going to take our capital back,” Trump declared, adding he'd also
be “getting rid of the slums.”
For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects
an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The
District of Columbia’s status as a congressionally established federal
district gives him a unique opportunity to push his tough-on-crime
agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of
homelessness or crime.
Attorney General Pam Bondi will assume responsibility for Washington’s
Metropolitan Police Department, Trump said, as he also railed against
potholes and graffiti in the city and called them “embarrassing.” The
president did not provide a timeline for the control of the police
department, but he's limited to 30 days under statute unless he gets
approval from Congress.
As Trump spoke, demonstrators gathered outside the White House to
protest his moves. And local officials rejected the Republican
president's depiction of the district as crime-ridden and called his
actions illegal.
“The administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and
unlawful,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said.
“There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia."
Schwalb, a Democrat, said violent crime in the district reached historic
30-year lows last year and is down an additional 26% this year.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would follow the law regarding
the “so-called emergency” even as she indicated that Trump's actions
were a reason why the District of Columbia should be a state with legal
protections from such actions.
“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say
that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally
surprised,” Bowser said.
Combating crime
The president dismissed the idea Washington needed to enlarge its
3,500-officer police force, even as he seeks to have more armed
personnel going through the city with the goal of reducing crime.
“What you need is rules and regulations, and you need the right people
to implement them,” he said.
Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in
an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so his administration
could take over the city's police force. He signed a directive for
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to activate the National Guard.
While Trump has portrayed himself as a friend to law enforcement and
enjoyed the political backing from many of their groups, he pardoned or
commuted the sentences of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in
the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted
of assaulting police officers.
About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with
deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s effort to
combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated
Press.
More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal 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 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.
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady
Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The National Guard
Bowser, a Democrat, has previously questioned the effectiveness of
using the National Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal
government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or
filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which
have been open for years.
Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can
submit a request to the Pentagon.
“I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard,” she
said Sunday on MSNBC's “The Weekend,” acknowledging it is "the
president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.”
Bowser noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a
rise in 2023. She stressed during a Monday news conference that she
believed Trump's views of the city were shaped by the “challenging
times” of the coronavirus pandemic, when he faced protests and crime
spiked as the country began to recover from the outbreak.
Focusing on homelessness
Trump has emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless
population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people
would go, and he did not give details at his news conference Monday.
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote Sunday in
a social media post. “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.”
Jesse Rabinowitz, a advocate for homeless people, called Trump's
plan “fascist” and a “waste” of resources. He said the move wasn't
about safety.
“It is about power, and it is about fascism and authoritarianism,”
said Rabinowitz, the campaign and communication director for the
National Homelessness Law Center. “If Donald Trump wanted to keep
D.C. safe, he would fund housing and support. Instead, the
Republicans just gutted health care, and they’re passing through a
budget that will make homelessness worse. They do not care about
helping people.”
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.
The president has 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 the Department of Government
Efficiency. 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 Bowser “a good person who has tried, but she has been
given many chances.”
Trump has repeatedly suggested 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.
Bowser acknowledged the law allows the president to take more
control over the city's police, but only if certain conditions are
met.
“None of those conditions exist in our city right now," she said.
“We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we’re watching
our crime numbers go down.”
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Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil, Alanna Durkin Richer, Nathan
Ellgren, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price contributed to
this report.
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