Donald Trump orders authoritarian takeover of Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump stood in the White House press briefing room Monday morning, declaring it “Liberation Day in D.C.” and announcing that he was taking over Washington, D.C.’s police force. Invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, a rarely used provision of federal law, Trump said he was placing the Metropolitan Police Department under direct White House control and deploying the D.C. National Guard into city streets.

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The president framed the move as a rescue mission. “We’re going to take our capital back,” he told reporters, flanked by Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “We’re going to reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.”

In a freewheeling press event, Trump painted a portrait of the capital as a failed city, “overtaken by violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” and claimed that D.C.’s murder rate now surpasses that of Iraq’s Baghdad, Bogota, Colombia, and Mexico City. Those false assertions stand in sharp contrast to Justice Department and MPD data showing violent crime at its lowest point in 30 years, down 35 percent in 2024 and another 26 percent so far in 2025.

Related: What the heck is happening in D.C.? Nothing, until Trump deployed the National Guard

The speech veered from incorrect crime statistics to political grievances. He tied the takeover to cultural issues, railing against “sanctuary cities” and saying, “That’s why they want men playing in women’s sports. That’s why they want transgender for everybody. Everybody transgender.” He also told reporters he would be going to Russia on Friday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, a claim that is also wrong. The meeting is planned for Alaska, where Putin is expected to attend an upcoming bilateral summit on the war in Ukraine.

For days, Trump had teased federal actions to address crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital, including deploying hundreds of federal agents, activating the National Guard, and ordering homeless residents to leave the city “immediately.”

“Washington, D.C. will be LIBERATED today! Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday morning, ahead of the 10 a.m. Eastern press conference. “The days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people, are OVER! I quickly fixed the Border (ZERO ILLEGALS in last 3 months!), D.C. is next!!!”

Bondi followed with her own promise: “Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today. No more teenage girls beating a disabled man to death. No more drive-bys.” She named a roster of administration loyalists who will now oversee the city’s policing and prosecution, including former Fox News host and judge Janine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., whom Bondi said would take aim at juvenile crime.

Hegseth told reporters that the National Guard’s deployment would be “operationalized by the Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll,” and that additional Guard and “specialized units” were ready to be brought in. “They will be strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners,” he said.

The president’s push to seize authority follows weeks of public hints and a recent incident he’s seized on as a rallying point: the assault of a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer during an attempted carjacking. Over the weekend, about 450 federal officers from 18 agencies, including 120 FBI agents reassigned from other duties, were sent to “known hotspots” identified by the administration.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Democrat who was elected to lead the city, called Trump’s rhetoric “hyperbolic and false” on MSNBC Sunday. She warned that using the National Guard for law enforcement was “inefficient and inappropriate,” pointing to the city’s falling crime rate as evidence that a takeover was unjustified.

For Washington’s LGBTQ+ residents, who make up 14.5 percent of the adult population, the highest proportion in the country, the stakes are high. Bowser has called the District “the gayest city in the world” and has pledged to defend the city’s LGBTQ+ resources, which now face being administered under a president whose administration has been defined by rollbacks of queer and trans rights.