President Donald Trump on Monday began a federal takeover of Washington, D.C. Speaking from the White House press briefing room, Trump told reporters he would take over the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the D.C. National Guard into the streets to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime.”
Flanked by members of the administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump announced he was taking over law enforcement in the city.
For days, Trump had teased federal actions to address crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital, including deploying hundreds of federal agents, activating the National Guard, and ordering homeless residents to leave the city “immediately.”
“Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today! Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday morning, ahead of the 10 a.m. Eastern press conference. “The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER! I quickly fixed the Border (ZERO ILLEGALS in last 3 months!), D.C. is next!!!”
The president’s intensified focus on crime comes after a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer was assaulted earlier this month by a group of teenagers attempting to carjack him. Two 15-year-old suspects were arrested in the case, which Trump has repeatedly cited as evidence that the city is “out of control.”
Over the weekend, about 450 federal officers from 18 agencies, including 120 Federal Bureau of Investigation agents reassigned from other duties, were deployed to patrol high-traffic areas and what the administration called “known hotspots” across Washington.
Trump has claimed D.C. is among the most dangerous cities in the world, pledging to “beautify” the capital and remove “tents, squalor, filth, and Crime.” His statements contradict Justice Department and Metropolitan Police Department data showing violent crime is at a 30-year low, down 35 percent last year and another 26 percent so far in 2025.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Democrat elected to lead the city, who has remained mostly quiet about the moves, on Sunday called Trump’s rhetoric “hyperbolic and false,” warning that using the National Guard for law enforcement would be inefficient and inappropriate. Speaking on MSNBC’s The Weekend, she stressed that crime has been falling steadily and that the city’s safety record does not meet the legal conditions for a federal takeover.
According to a 2023 Williams Institute study, 14.5 percent of D.C.’s adult residents identify as LGBTQ+, the highest percentage in the nation, nearly double the rate of the next-highest state. Bowser has called the District “the gayest city in the world” and has pledged to defend its LGBTQ+ community and resources.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: BREAKING: Donald Trump begins authoritarian takeover of Washington, D.C.