Trump Seizes Control of D.C. Police, Deploys National Guard in Unprecedented Move
President invokes rarely used Home Rule Act clause to take over Washington’s police force despite falling crime rates.
Washington, August 11 EST: Donald Trump has never been shy about flexing executive muscle. On Monday, the president went further than any of his predecessors in modern times, seizing direct control of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and ordering National Guard troops into the streets a dramatic intervention wrapped in the language of emergency but unfolding against crime statistics that tell a different story.
This was not the usual saber-rattling for cable news. By invoking Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, Trump reached for a legal lever so obscure it has gathered dust since the law’s passage in 1973. The clause permits a president to take over the city’s police force during “conditions of an emergency nature.” In practice, that meant Attorney General Pam Bondi now commands the MPD, with DEA Administrator Terry Cole installed as interim commissioner, effectively sidelining Mayor Muriel Bowser.
The takeover will last 48 hours unless extended to 30 days through Congress a ticking clock that may prove as politically explosive as the decision itself.
A President Who Thrives on the Visual
The optics are unmistakable. Hours after the order, military vehicles rolled into neighborhoods from Columbia Heights to Capitol Hill. Around 800 Guard members took up positions alongside newly arrived teams from the FBI, ICE, ATF, and U.S. Marshals Service. According to the Washington Post, 120 FBI agents have been tasked with late-night patrols a sight not witnessed in the capital since the street battles of 2020.
Trump framed it as a moral rescue mission, calling D.C. a “hellscape” of crime, drugs, and homelessness. That imagery plays into a familiar political strategy: define a crisis, declare yourself the indispensable savior, and move before your opponents can settle on a counter-narrative.
But the city’s own numbers paint a quieter reality. Violent crime is down 26% compared to last year. Homicides are down 12%. The overall crime rate has fallen 7%. This isn’t a city in freefall; it’s a city climbing out of a bad stretch.
History’s Long Shadow
Federal muscle in D.C. isn’t new, but its context matters. President Lyndon Johnson deployed troops during the riots after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. Richard Nixon leaned on federal policing during Vietnam-era protests. But both moves responded to undeniable, visible unrest. Trump’s intervention, by contrast, comes without the backdrop of burning streets or surging homicides a fact that may weigh heavily in the coming legal fight.
Section 740 has simply never been tested like this. Legal scholars are already warning that the threshold for an “emergency” will be scrutinized in court, and if the bar is set too low, the precedent could allow future presidents to muscle into D.C. governance for reasons as political as they are practical.
The Politics of Control
For Trump, the capital is more than a jurisdiction it’s a stage. Tightening the reins on D.C. sends a signal to supporters nationwide that he is willing to “take charge” in places they view as mismanaged, even when the data says otherwise. It also serves as a rebuke to Bowser, a Democratic mayor who has frequently clashed with him.
For Bowser, this is about defending the principle of home rule, the fragile arrangement that lets Washington govern itself despite lacking statehood. Her pushback “D.C. is not in crisis” is aimed less at changing Trump’s mind and more at galvanizing residents and allies in Congress.
That’s where the real showdown may unfold. Extending Trump’s control past Wednesday would require congressional notification, opening a window for Democrats to mount procedural and public resistance. Expect a scramble in the next 48 hours press conferences, emergency hearings, perhaps even legal injunctions.
A City Holding Its Breath
On the ground, the mood is unsettled. Residents accustomed to seeing local officers they know by name are now met with unfamiliar federal agents in tactical gear. Civil rights lawyers are already warning of aggressive stop-and-search tactics. Community leaders are worried that the trust built between neighborhoods and local police could be shredded in days.
For now, the streets are quieter than Trump’s rhetoric suggests. But in Washington, appearances can be misleading and the fight over who commands its police force may end up revealing far more about the nature of presidential power in 2025 than about crime in the capital.
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A political science PhD who jumped the academic ship to cover real-time governance, Olivia is the East Coast's sharpest watchdog. She dissects power plays in Trenton and D.C. without bias or apology.
