In a move that, at least within the US, is seen more as a show of power and authoritarianism than as a real necessity, US President Donald Trump declared the US capital a state of public safety emergency, which allows the District of Columbia to come under full federal control.

With the takeover of Washington, President Trump gives Attorney General Pam Bondi federal control of Washington police and deploys, as announced, 800 members of the National Guard in an effort to suppress crime.

Extreme rhetoric from Donald Trump

At the press conference, where he appeared alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Cass Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hessgetth, Interior Secretary Doug Bergham, and U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., Jeanine Piro, Trump used extreme rhetoric, claiming: Our capital has been taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roaming mobs of wild youth, drug addicts and homeless people, and we are not going to let it go. We are not going to allow it. You know, we have slums here. We are going to get rid of them. I know it is not politically correct. You are going to start saying, Oh, how awful.

As he added: You know, they love to spit in the faces of the police officers as they just stand there in their uniforms. They just stand and shout at them an inch away from their faces, and then they start spitting in their faces. And I said, tell them you spit, and we hit, and they hit them really hard.

Under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress ultimate authority over the District of Columbia but allows its residents to elect a mayor and city council, Trump can temporarily take control of the district's police department if he determines that special emergency conditions exist.

Terry Cole, the commissioner of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will now head the Metropolitan Police Department on behalf of the federal government, it was announced. Cole was sworn in as DEA commissioner in July.

The official figures do not justify the move… so much the worse for them

Despite Trump and his administration’s insistence that Washington has succumbed to a crime spree, official data paints a starkly different picture. Crime in Washington fell 35% in 2024 from the previous year, reaching its lowest level in 30 years. Data from the region also shows that violent crime has declined so far in 2025 compared to the previous year.

Trump's anger against local authorities who are Democrats was expressed after an attack on a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) official during a carjacking earlier this month.

Trump, who addressed reporters from the White House briefing room, disputed those numbers and marginally presented Washington as more dangerous than Bogota and Mexico City in terms of the number of homicides.

White House officials have claimed that the official figures are falsified by a suspended Washington police commander.

The occupation was being prepared for days – There may be a continuation

In the past few days, the White House has been beefing up federal law enforcement across the region in a crackdown on crime. Officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI and other agencies have been deployed throughout the city. There have been suspicions that it could even send in the military if necessary.

It is noted that the US president, in his speech, implied that it is not unlikely that similar measures will be taken in other cities, such as, for example, in the capital of Illinois, Chicago, but also in New York City.

This is not the first time Trump has threatened to deploy the National Guard to New York and have the federal government take control of it.

Last week, preparing the ground for the move against Washington, he had viciously attacked the potential next mayor of New York, Zoran Mamdani, claiming that his government would take control of it if the communist was elected mayor in the November elections.

Trump's move comes as a court is examining whether the Trump administration, by deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles months ago, violated the relevant legislation that prohibits the deployment of military forces for law enforcement within the United States (Posse Comitatus Act).