Trump announced on Monday that he would activate the guard and take over the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, citing a crime emergency in the city.
National Guard troops started arriving in Washington on Tuesday to begin enforcing President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement and security. They’re part of an 800-member deployment ordered by the administration.
Trump announced on Monday that he would activate the guard and take over the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, citing a crime emergency in the city.
Speaking ahead of the National Guard troops’ arrival, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president’s emergency proclamation “is only the beginning.”
She said: “Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the district who breaks the law, undermines public safety, and endangers law-abiding Americans.”
Leavitt said Tuesday that the addition of National Guardsmen to the federalized D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) would assist to “end violent crime in our nation’s capital as part of the President’s massive law enforcement surge.”
Leavitt said that approximately 850 police officers “were surged” across the city on the evening of Aug. 11 ahead of the National Guard’s arrival. They made nearly two dozen arrests.
The move is part of a push by the administration toward “beautification” of the capital city as well as the crackdown on crime.
“President Trump … is going to make our nation’s capital the most beautiful and safe city on Earth, just as he promised on the campaign trail,” Leavitt said.
On Aug. 10, Trump condemned crime and homelessness in Washington, saying that if changes weren’t made to local policy, he would federalize policing in the city—some of his first hints of the planned policy.
“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control,” Trump wrote in a Sunday post on Truth Social. “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”
On Aug. 10, Trump condemned crime and homelessness in Washington, saying that if changes weren’t made to local policy, he would federalize policing in the city—some of his first hints of the planned policy.
By Joseph Lord
