The number of federal troops descending on Washington, D.C., is set to increase as President Donald Trump pushes to extend the city’s federal takeover despite crime declining in recent years.
Trump announced Monday he was placing the D.C. police department under direct federal control and deploying the National Guard to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.”
National Guard troops started hitting D.C. streets Tuesday evening, and over the coming days, there will be between 100 and 200 soldiers out patrolling at any given time, The New York Times reported, citing Army spokesman Colonel Dave Butler. In total, about 800 troops are expected to be deployed.
There have been at least 66 arrests made since the federal takeover began, according to the Trump administration.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said 23 people were arrested Monday evening, and FBI Director Kash Patel said 43 more arrests were made as of early Wednesday morning.
The D.C. takeover is supposed to last for 30 days, but in a speech at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, Trump said he wants to extend federal control of local police.
“If it’s a national emergency we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly,” Trump said.
Trump claimed on Monday D.C. “has been taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.”
But the violent crime rate went down by 35 percent in 2024 after peaking in 2023, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. in January.
It said violent crime was at a 30-year low, with homicides down by 32 percent, robberies down 39 percent, armed carjackings down by 53 percent, and assaults with a dangerous weapon down 27 percent.
D.C. police say violent crime for 2025 is down 26 percent as of Wednesday.
Mayor Muriel Bowser has criticized the federal takeover, calling the move “unsettling and unprecedented,” and even “authoritarian.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would not grant an extension to the D.C. takeover if Trump asked the Republican-controlled Congress for one.
“No f***ing way,” he told journalist Aaron Parnas in a Wednesday interview. “We’ll fight him tooth and nail.”
Trump has also floated the idea of expanding his efforts to other major cities.
“We are going to do something and it’s going to serve as a beacon for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other places all over the country,” he said in his Kennedy Center speech.
