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Trump’s DC crackdown raises legal questions about presidential power over the capital

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to deploy up to 1,000 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., as early as this week, Fox News has learned, in an effort to help deal with what he characterized as a surge in violent crime. 

The plans come just one day after Trump vowed on Truth Social to evict homeless persons from that nation's capital. "The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY," Trump said on social media. "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong."

Trump's plans, which are expected to be detailed further at a 10 a.m. press conference Monday, would likely involve members of the D.C. National Guard, or the 2,700-member National Guard force that acts at the express authority of the commander in chief.

Unlike other branches, Trump would not have to get the sign off of local authorities to act — likely making their activation a tempting option.

 

Trump at Oval Office desk during executive order signing ceremony
President Donald Trump is seen in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, May 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

 

When speaking to reporters in the Oval Office last week, Trump railed against what he described as a "ridiculous" level of crime in the nation's capital, buffeted most recently by the assault on a former DOGE staffer earlier this month.

"We want to have a great, safe capital," Trump said last week. "And we’re going to have it."

Trump also told reporters that his White House lawyers are looking into ending the Home Rule Act, a law passed by Congress in 1973 that gave Washington, D.C., residents the right to elect their own mayor and local representatives. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters last week that Trump had ordered law enforcement personnel to increase their presence in the capital, though the additional details on the scope and timeframe of that presence remain unclear. 

Trump is expected to address those plans in a press conference Monday morning. 

However, for Trump, delivering on this promise could be fraught with long-term legal complications — in part, because crime in the city is actually down to its lowest point in nearly 30 years.

 

Washington, DC skyline at sunrise
Birds are silhouetted as they fly over the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol at sunrise on election day in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 8, 2016. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

 

Violent crime in the first seven months of 2025 has dropped by roughly 26% compared to 2024, according to data compiled by the D.C. Police Department and released earlier this month. Overall, crime in the nation’s capital has dropped by roughly 7%.

On Sunday, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said in an interview with NewsNation that Washington, D.C., "is more violent than Baghdad." 

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, for her part, told MSNBC in an interview Sunday that "Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false."

However, it's not the first time Trump has sought to crack down on crime in the nation's capitol — an effort he has returned to frequently, including during his first term in office.

 

President Trump in the Oval Office
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday in order to prevent the termination of three board members. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)

 

Trump in March signed an executive order, "Making DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force," designed to address issues with a city he has long derided as "filthy," "horribly run" and "crime-ridden," among other things. "We want to have a great, safe capital," he told reporters. "And we’re going to have it. And that includes cleanliness and it includes other things."

However, those powers aren't indefinite, experts explained to Fox News Digital.

Trump does have the authority to activate the 2,700-member D.C. National Guard without the approval of local officials. Guard troops provide "mission-ready personnel and units for active duty in the armed services" in Washington, D.C., according to their website.

Beyond that, Trump's ability to exercise authority in the nation's capital is bound by the Home Rule Act. 

In the more than 50 years since that law was passed, "there really hasn't been a serious conversation about ending home rule governance," George Derek Musgrove, a history professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, told Fox News in an interview.

"And the problem with our federal system is that there are places where Trump really doesn't have any supporters, and therefore, with the limits of executive power, really doesn't have that much sway," Musgrove said. "And he's constantly probing for ways around that."

Other options available to Trump aren't without their own limits. In order to call up the local police force for any meaningful length of time, as Trump has suggested, a president must be able to assert "special conditions of an emergency nature," according to the 1970s law.

"If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take federal control," Trump said last week. 

However, that's easier said than done, individuals familiar with the law told Fox News Digital.

"DC is just a tempting target because there's not even a lot of legal gymnastics you have to do in order to exert tremendous power [in a city with ]a 90% Democratic jurisdiction. He has it already," Musgrove said.

"But it is morally questionable, I think, and violates democratic principles," he added.

Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news. 

Source: Fox News:

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