Trump says he's placing Washington, DC, police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard

President Donald Trump is pledging new measures to address homelessness and crime in Washington, D.C., including deploying the National Guard — a plan that has prompted legal concerns from the city’s mayor over who will be policing the streets of the nation’s capital.

Speaking at a Monday news conference, Trump announced, “We are deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they will be allowed to do their job properly.” He drew comparisons between crime in Washington and in major global capitals — including those of Iraq, Brazil, and Colombia — claiming the U.S. capital fares worse on safety.

“We’re getting rid of the slums, too,” Trump said, insisting the U.S. would not “lose its cities” and declaring Washington to be “just the start.”

For Trump, assuming control over public safety in Washington marks an extension of his law-and-order platform, following his aggressive measures to curb illegal immigration. The plan calls for at least 500 federal law enforcement officers alongside National Guard troops, raising fundamental questions about the role of an increasingly assertive federal government in relation to state and local authorities.

Trump has frequently used both his social media presence and the presidential podium to project a tough-on-crime image. But because Washington is a congressionally controlled federal district, his influence there differs from his reach in U.S. states — and it remains unclear how his proposals would address the deeper causes of crime and homelessness.

He said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act as the basis for mobilizing the National Guard.