Around 200 Mississippi National Guard soldiers are headed to Washington, D.C., on President Donald Trump’s orders, joining over 800 national soldiers who are part of a federal takeover of the nation’s capital policing.
Gov. Tate Reeves approved the president’s deployment request on Monday morning.
Trump has ordered soldiers across the country to temporarily take over the Washington Metropolitan Police Department to fight what he calls a wave of crime and homelessness in the capital city. West Virginia is sending 300 to 400 of its National Guard Troops; South Carolina will be deploying 200; and Ohio will send 150 soldiers over the next few days.
“I’ve approved the deployment of approximately 200 Mississippi National Guard Soldiers to Washington, D.C., to support President Trump’s effort to return law and order to our nation’s capital,” Reeves said in a Monday press release. “Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it. Americans deserve a safe capital city that we can all be proud of. I know the brave men and women of our National Guard will do an excellent job enhancing public safety and supporting law enforcement.”
Violent crime in Washington, D.C., had fallen significantly when Trump started his second term in January, and it has decreased an additional 26% since then, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb told the Associated Press.
“The administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” the D.C. attorney general said. “There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia.”
For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington, D.C., reflects an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The District of Columbia’s status as a congressionally established federal district allows him a unique opportunity to push his tough-on-crime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime.
Attorney General Pam Bondi will assume responsibility for Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, Trump said, as he also railed against potholes and graffiti in the city and called them “embarrassing.” The president did not provide a timeline for maintaining control of the police department, but he’s limited to 30 days under statute unless he gets approval from Congress.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would follow the law regarding the “so-called emergency” even as she indicated that Trump’s actions are a reason why the District of Columbia should be a state with legal protections from such actions.
“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Bowser told the Associated Press on Aug. 11.
Even as district officials questioned the claims underlying his emergency declaration, the Republican president promised a “historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”
Trump’s rhetoric echoed that used by conservative politicians going back decades who have denounced American cities, especially those with majority non-white populations or led by progressive politicians, as lawless or crime-ridden and in need of outside intervention.
“The president foreshadowed that if these heavy-handed tactics take root here, they will be rolled out to other majority-Black and Brown cities, like Chicago, Oakland and Baltimore, across the country,” said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s D.C. chapter.
“We’ve seen before how federal control of the D.C. National Guard and police can lead to abuse, intimidation and civil rights violations—from military helicopters swooping over peaceful racial justice protesters in 2020 to the unchecked conduct of federal officers who remain shielded from full accountability,” Hopkins said.
Trump Orders Homeless People to Leave D.C.
On Aug. 10, after his motorcade drove by a few homeless people’s encampments while on the way to his golf course in Virginia, Trump ordered D.C.’s homeless residents to leave the city or else the administration would forcibly relocate them.
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Aug. 11. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said unhoused people in the nation’s capital will have a few options: they can stay and risk law enforcement fining or arresting them; leave their encampment and find another place to stay; or go to a homeless shelter or other location that can offer addiction and mental health services if needed.
Washington, D.C., city officials eliminated a roadside encampment on Aug. 14 that Trump had previously complained about. Many unhoused people rest in Washington Circle Park in Foggy Bottom, and WTOP News Reporter Scott Gelman reported on Aug. 15 that the Washington, D.C., Department of Human Services had signed notes on the unhoused people’s tents that said the individuals had until Aug. 18 to relocate.
“While we are trying to remove criminals and take criminals off the street, we’re trying to make D.C. safe and beautiful, and that involves removing mentally disturbed individuals and homeless encampments as well,” Leavitt said.
Some unhoused people in the nation’s capital told Gelman that they did not want to stay in homeless shelters because shelters can evoke feelings of being imprisoned.
“We don’t like shelters because it feels like prison, and then they put you in with the craziest people off the street, and make you stay in a room with them and just expect you to get along and be grateful for it,” Megan, who lives in a tent at Foggy Bottom, told Gelman.
How the Federal Takeover Happened
Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so that his administration could take over the city’s police force. He signed a directive for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to activate the National Guard.
While Trump has portrayed himself as a friend to law enforcement and enjoyed the political backing from many of their groups, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.
About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, D.C., the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are contributing officers.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment Monday morning.
