Trump deploys the National Guard in Washington: "The homicide rate is higher than Bogotá's today."
The president is advancing his war against cities he considers enemies and is threatening to do the same in New York and Chicago.
WashingtonFirst it was Los Angeles. And now it's the capital's turn. The army will be deployed on the streets of Washington. The reason? "To help restore law and order." Donald Trump announced this at a press conference on Monday. A controversial decision that he justified by arguing that "the homicide rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogotá, Colombia, or Mexico City, some of which are often said to be among the worst in the world." As always, the president's words are one thing and reality is another: according to data from the Washington, DC, police department, there were 112 murders in Washington in 2024. In Bogotá, from January to September 2024 alone, there were 863, according to data from the Bogotá City Council.
The militarization of the US capital doesn't stop with the National Guard. Trump has also announced that he is placing the local police force under federal control. To do so, he has invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. Under the Home Rule Act, the president can assume control of the DC police force for 48 hours "if he determines that special emergency conditions exist which require the use of metropolitan police force for federal purposes." The takeover can be extended with the approval of the members of Congress who oversee DC affairs. Any request longer than 30 days must be signed into law. Trump has signed an executive order declaring a "criminal emergency situation in the District of Columbia."
During the election campaign, Trump already portrayed the nation's capital as a decadent and crime-ridden place, although crime statistics for the District of Columbia show a decline in this phenomenon in recent years. "Our capital has been occupied by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving groups of wild youth, drug-addicted maniacs and the homeless, and we will not allow this to continue," Trump argued on Monday. However, statistics say otherwise. Violent crime has decreased by 26% in the city compared to August 2024, according to data from the Washington police. As for homicides, they have decreased by 12%.
"The process begins now," the president announced. "It will be an incredible thing to see. And I think many of you have said that it would be a beautiful thing to do, right? We will be removing all the homeless encampments from all of our parks, our beautiful parks, where now many people cannot walk, very, very dirty, with many problems," the president said in a speech. "Some of these people, we don't even know how they got here. Some come from different countries, from different parts of the world. Nobody knows who they are. Not even they know themselves."
The same manual as in Los Angeles
The president, then, is preparing to apply in Washington the same strategy he used in Los Angeles to deploy 5,000 National Guard troops during protests against the controversial immigration raids. Trump escalated tensions in the city by mobilizing immigration enforcement agents (ICE), who carried out indiscriminate and violent arrests in the city streets. Meanwhile, while the situation grew heated over the actions of ICE, which provoked greater rejection among the local population, the president used the institutional platform to inflame the situation and call Los Angeles a "lawless city." All this was to create a platform that would later serve to justify the deployment of the National Guard against the wishes of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who rejected the mobilization of the military.
The power to deploy the National Guard rests with the states, and the president cannot impose it. The case of the District of Columbia is different, since, as it is not a state as such, the power to activate the military rests with the president. The deployment of the National Guard in Washington is the next step in the war Trump is waging against those states and cities in the hands of Democrats. The deployment of the military to Los Angeles, as well as the aggressiveness of ICE on its streets, was an exemplary punishment for all sanctuary cities, which he has now exported to DC and threatens to do so in others. "We will immediately look to New York," Trump has said. "And if necessary, we will also do the same in Chicago, which is a disaster."
The terms sanctuary city and sanctuary state are used to refer to places in the United States where local police are not allowed to cooperate with federal law enforcement, making them safer for undocumented immigrants. New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, in addition to being Democratic strongholds—which Trump sees as enemies—are also a deterrent to his campaign of mass deportations because they grant more rights to undocumented immigrants.
On Sunday, Trump compared his plans for Washington to the deployment of the military to the U.S.-Mexico border to intercept people trying to enter the country illegally. The president said he would "immediately" remove the city's homeless population and take "swift action against crime."