Trump Declares Public Safety Emergency in Washington D.C., Deploys National Guard Amid Backlash
Story: written by Okafor Joseph August 12,2025
President Donald Trump on Monday declared a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., taking temporary control of the city’s police department and deploying National Guard troops to the streets.
Trump said the action was necessary to take “dramatic measures” in addressing public safety concerns, appointing Attorney General Pam Bondi to oversee the Metropolitan Police Department. He also signaled potential similar interventions in New York, Baltimore, and Oakland, and did not rule out sending federal military forces into the capital.
The move comes despite police data showing D.C.’s violent crime rate has dropped 26% this year — the lowest level in 30 years. Mayor Muriel Bowser dismissed Trump’s claims of a public safety crisis as “hyperbolic and false,” while the D.C. Council condemned the Guard deployment as a “manufactured intrusion on local authority.”
Critics warn the president’s order could violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement. Several Democrats, including D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, are advocating legislation to transfer control of the D.C. National Guard to the mayor and strip the president of the authority to seize local police forces — though the bill faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Congress.
