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.
WashingtonDonald Trump has announced that he is deploying the National Guard to the capital city to "help restore law and order in Washington, D.C." "The homicide rate in Washington today is higher than in Bogotá, Colombia, Mexico City, some of which are often said to be among the worst in the world," the president fallaciously claimed at a White House press conference on Monday. According to data from the DC Police Department, there were 112 murders in the city in 2024. In Bogotá, from January to September 2024 alone, there were 863 homicides, according to data from the Bogotá City Council.
The Republican has also announced that he is placing local police under federal control. To do so, he has invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. According to 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."
"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 happen anymore," Trump has argued, despite statistics to the contrary. Violent crime is down 26% in the city compared to this time in 2024, according to Washington police data. Homicides are also down 12%.
"The process begins now," the president announced. "It's going to be an incredible thing to see. And I think many of you have said it would be a beautiful thing to do, right? We're going to be removing all the homeless encampments from all of our parks, our beautiful parks, where now many people can't 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 is applying with Washington the same strategy he used in Los Angeles to deploy 5,000 National Guard troops during protests against aggressive 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 ICE's operations, which provoked greater rejection among the local population, the president used his institutional voice 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 will 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. Already during the election campaign, Trump portrayed the nation's capital as a decadent, crime-ridden place, although crime statistics for the District of Columbia show a decline in this phenomenon in recent years.
The deployment of the National Guard in Washington is the next step in the war Trump is waging against the states and cities he considers enemies. The deployment of the military to Los Angeles, as well as the aggressiveness of ICE on its streets, was an exemplary punishment for all the sanctuary cities, which he has now exported to DC and is threatening others with. "We'll look at New York next," Trump has said. "And if necessary, we'll 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 people. New York, Chicago, DC, and Los Angeles, in addition to being Democratic strongholds—which he sees as enemies—are also a brake on his campaign of mass deportations because they guarantee more rights to undocumented immigrants.
On Sunday, Trump compared his plans for Washington to the deployment of the military to the US-Mexico border to intercept people trying to enter the country illegally. The president said he would "immediately remove the homeless population from the city and take swift action against crime."
