US President Donald Trump sends 800 soldiers from the National Guard to Washington and places the capital police under Federal Bevel to combat a wave of crime that he says the city, even though official figures show that violent crime has been declining in recent years.
With the controversial measure, which Trump announced in the White House on Monday, the Republican president wants to further strengthen his image as a leader who acts without mercy against criminals, especially in cities that are controlled by his political opponents, the Democrats. He also wants to show that he does not reflect on steps that critics regard as authoritarian, because he claims control of local powers.
At a press conference, Trump outlined a dystopic picture of Washington. “Our capital has been taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, wilds of wild young people, maniacs who are under the influence of drugs and homeless people,” he said. In the area of safety, according to him, the city stands out poorly at the capitals of Iraq and Colombia, Baghdad and Bogotá.
Number of violent crimes decreased
The authorities of Washington, one of the most democratic cities in the United States, fiercely oppose that image. According to Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser, there is no “peak of crime” in the capital. She pointed out that violent crimes reached the lowest level last year in more than 30 years. Although the city, like other American cities, is struggling with firearm violence, the number of violent crimes fell by 26 percent in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period in 2024 in the first seven months of this year, after a decrease of 35 percent over that entire year compared to the year before.
According to critics, the fact that Trump still wants to intervene has to do with a number of factors. First, he wants to portray his democratic opponents as Weak on crimeweaknesses in the field of crime fight – a proven method for the Republicans, who like to present themselves as the party of law and order. Trump accused the Democrats during his press conference of “no safety,” and also painted other democratic strongholds, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Baltimore, as torn by crime.
He left that large American cities in states that are governed by Republicans, such as Memphis, St. Louis and New Orleans, under the cities with the highest murder figures, unmentioned.
Moreover, Washington is a relatively easy target due to the unique character of the capital such as the federal district of Columbia. That District, in short DC, is controlled according to the so -called Home Rule Act: authority lies with the US Congress, although residents choose the mayor and the city council. The president can use the national guard there unsolicited; In the states, that authority lies in principle with the governor.
Trump did that earlier in 2020, when he used soldiers against demonstrators of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by police violence in Minneapolis. He left just to intervene during the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, where his supporters tried to prevent the ratification of the election victory of Joe Biden, Trumps opponent in the 2020 presidential election. Then 1,100 members of the National Guard were deployed by the Pentagon at the request of Mayor Bowser.
Other democratic cities
Trump seems to want to set Washington as an example and did not exclude on Monday also to intervene in the other democratic cities. In June he sent five thousand soldiers from the National Guard to Los Angeles to put an end to disturbances. Those riots followed protests against the actions of agents of the federal immigration police ICE to, at the initiative of the Trump government, to detect and arrest illegal immigrants. Trump sent the National Guard against the will of Governor Gavin Newsom of California.
Trump started a deployment from the National Guard in Washington last week, after a recent attack on an employee of his Department for Public Efficiency (Doge). The president said on Monday that he wants to “use the American army in Washington if necessary. Minister of Defense Pete Hegseeth said that he is willing to call more soldiers from the National Guard. According to the White House, the Washington police are supposed to be led by Minister of Justice Pam Bondi for thirty days. It is still unclear in which parts of the capital the National Guard will be used.
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