WASHINGTON DC: US President Donald Trump has announced the deployment of National Guard troops to the U.S. capital, declaring a public safety emergency and asserting federal control over the city’s police department.
He pledged to tackle what he described as rising crime and homelessness in Washington, D.C., according to BBC.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said 800 National Guard personnel would be sent to support hundreds of federal law enforcement officers already deployed over the weekend.
“We’re seeing a breakdown of law and order,” Trump told reporters, describing the situation as one of “complete and total lawlessness.”
However, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back against Trump’s claims, citing police data that shows a steady decline in crime since a surge in 2023.
Violent crime is currently at its lowest in three decades, and homicides have dropped by 32% between 2023 and 2024, with an additional 12% decrease recorded so far this year.
Despite this, Trump claimed the city had been “overrun” by criminal gangs, drug users, and homeless individuals. Flanked by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi—who will oversee the Metropolitan Police during the federal takeover—Trump declared: “This is liberation day in D.C. We’re taking our capital back.”
During a press conference, he described the initiative as a historic move to “rescue the nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, chaos, and decay.”
Mayor Bowser, a Democrat, acknowledged that 2023 saw a sharp rise in crime, which reflected broader national trends, but she rejected the idea that D.C. is currently facing a crimewave. “We are not experiencing a crime spike,” she said in an interview with MSNBC, adding that the president is fully aware of the city’s ongoing public safety efforts.
Bowser also dismissed White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s comparison of Washington to Baghdad, calling it “hyperbolic and false.”
(Source: BBC)
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