US President Donald Trump says he is deploying 800 National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department, in an extraordinary assertion of presidential power in the nation's capital.

Trump's move, which bypassed the city's elected leaders, was emblematic of his second-term approach, which has seen him wield executive authority in ways with little precedent in modern US history and in defiance of political norms.

Unprecedented scenes in briefing room as Trump announces DC takeover. – AP

The president cast his actions as necessary to "rescue" Washington from a purported wave of lawlessness. Statistics show that violent crime shot up in 2023 but has been rapidly declining since.

"Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals," Trump told a news conference at the White House.

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.

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.

Mayor Bowser calls Trump takeover of DC police ‘unsettling’. – AP

It is the second time this summer that the Republican president has deployed troops to a Democratically governed city. A federal trial began in San Francisco on whether Trump violated US law by deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June without the approval of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

And Trump signalled that other major US cities with Democratic leadership could be next, including Chicago, a city that has long been beset by violent crime, although it was down significantly in the first half of the year.

"If we need to, we're going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster," Trump said at the White House, adding, "Hopefully LA is watching."

During Trump's election campaign his law and order platform often had racial undertones. He singled out majority Democratic cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Washington – all cities with large Black populations – when he spoke about rampant crime in urban areas.

Hundreds of officers and agents from more than a dozen federal agencies have fanned out across Washington in recent days. Attorney General Pam Bondi will oversee the police force, Trump said.

Trump says he will take control of DC police, deploy National Guard to capital. – Reuters

The US Army said the National Guard troops would carry out a number of tasks, including "administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement." Between 100 and 200 of the troops would be supporting law enforcement at any given time.

Bowser has pushed back on Trump's claims of unchecked violence, noting that violent crime hit its lowest level in more than three decades last year.

Violent crime soared in 2023, turning Washington into one of the nation's deadliest cities. However, violent crime dropped 35 per cent in 2024, according to federal data, and it has fallen an additional 26 per cent in the first seven months of 2025, according to city police.

“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."

Bowser struck a diplomatic tone at a news conference, saying she and other members of her administration would work with the federal government, even as she again rejected Trump's claim of widespread crime.

While Bowser said the law appeared to give the president broad power to take temporary control of the police force, Schwalb called Trump's actions "unlawful" and said his office was "considering all of our options".

Homelessness advocate calls Trump's plan to remove DC encampments 'fascist' and a 'waste'. – AP

Trump ramps up rhetoric 

Over the past week, Trump has intensified his messaging, suggesting he might attempt to strip the city of its local autonomy and implement a full federal takeover.

The District of Columbia operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress ultimate authority but allows residents to elect a mayor and city council.

Trump invoked a section of the act that allows the president to take over the police force for 30 days when "emergency" conditions exist. Trump said he was declaring a "public safety emergency" in the city.

Trump's own Federal Emergency Management Agency is cutting security funding for the National Capital Region, an area that includes DC and parts of Maryland and Virginia. The region will receive $20 million less this year from the federal urban security fund, amounting to a 44 per cent year-on-year cut.

Trump also vowed to remove homeless encampments, without providing details on how or where homeless people would be moved.

The federal government owns much of Washington's parkland, so the Trump administration has legal authority to clear homeless encampments in those areas, as then president Joe Biden did while in office. But the federal government cannot force people to move out of the city because they lack shelter, advocates for the homeless said.

Residents protest after Trump federalises DC police, deploys National Guard. – Reuters

The president has broad authority over the 2700 members of the DC National Guard, unlike in states where governors typically hold the power to activate troops.

Guard troops have been dispatched to Washington many times, including in response to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, and during 2020 protests over police brutality.

What the law says about Trump's move in DC

President Donald Trump took unprecedented steps toward federalising Washington DC on Monday, saying it's needed to fight crime.

He took command of the 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. Its historically majority Black population wasn't electing its own city council and mayor until 1973, when Republican President Richard Nixon signed the Home Rule Act.

The measure still left significant power to the president and Congress, though no president has exercised the police powers before.

AP EXPLAINS: Trump orders increased federal law enforcement in DC. – AP

Activating the National Guard

The Constitution calls for the creation of the District of Columbia to serve as the federal seat of power under the jurisdiction of Congress rather than any state.

While the Home Rule Act allowed for greater local control, the president can still call up the National Guard in Washington. His administration did it during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when members were later faulted for flying a helicopter too low over a crowd. The Guard was called out again during Trump's first term on January 6, 2021, when his supporters overran the Capitol.

Trump’s second-term moves in Washington come as the legal battle continues over his deployment of the National Guard in another Democratic-led city, Los Angeles, despite the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom.

His authority is less clear there, but an appeals court has so far refused to intervene. A lower-court judge was starting a trial Monday to determine whether the deployment violated another federal law.

Taking over the police

Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows for the president to take over Washington's Metropolitan Police Department for 48 hours, with possible extensions to 30 days, during times of emergencies. No president has done so before, said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of Washington.

Trump cited a number of recent high-profile incidents, including the killing of a 21-year-old congressional intern and the beating of a DOGE staffer during an attempted carjacking.

“This is liberation day in DC and we’re going to take our Capitol back,” the president said.

The Democratic mayor of DC, Muriel Bowser, called the takeover “unprecedented". She said that violent crime overall in Washington has decreased to a 30-year low, after a rise in 2023. Carjackings, for example, dropped about 50 per cent in 2024, and are down again this year. More than half of those arrested, however, are juveniles, and the extent of those punishments is a point of contention for the Trump administration.

No specification on how long it will last

It wasn’t immediately clear how long the takeover might last or exactly what it might mean. It could also face challenges in court.

Congress still has power over things like the budget and laws passed by the city council, but would have to repeal the Home Rule Act to expand federal power in the district.

It's something a few Republican lawmakers have pushed to do, but such an overhaul would almost certainly run into steep resistance from most Democrats, making it difficult to achieve.

The law is specific to DC, and doesn’t affect other communities around the US referred to as having their own “home rule” powers in relationship to their state governments.