DC Federalization Fallout: Democrats Spar With Trump

When President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would be federalizing the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and sending in the National Guard to combat crime in the nation’s capital, it prompted perhaps predictable denunciations from elected Democrats. 

“The administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful. There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in D.C. reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year. We are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement posted on the social media platform X. 

In an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the federal district, Trump said, “The city government’s failure to maintain public order and safety has had a dire impact on the Federal Government’s ability to operate efficiently to address the Nation’s broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence.”

The order further noted that “the District of Columbia now has a higher violent crime, murder, and robbery rate than all 50 States, recording a homicide rate in 2024 of 27.54 per 100,000 residents,” as well as having the highest vehicle theft rate in the United States. 

According to The Washington Examiner, about 800 National Guard troops are expected to be sent to the District, although only about 100 to 200 will be deployed at any particular time. Attorney General Pam Bondi will oversee the several thousand officers and staff in the Metropolitan Police Department, while Drug Enforcement Administration chief Terry Cole will take on the role of interim police commissioner.

“He was just getting warmed up in Los Angeles. He will gaslight his way into militarizing any city he wants in America. This is what dictators do,” Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an X post. 

Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation, disputed Newsom’s assertion that Trump was acting like a dictator.

“I think it’s important to focus on the District’s unique status. The Framers of our Constitution always envisioned that the federal government would ultimately retain control over the Federal District. In fact, if you go back and look at the history, the entire reason we have a separate federal capital city, run by the federal government, is because state and local officials would not take action to protect members of the Continental Congress,” Smith told The Daily Signal 

“You know, that’s when a group of disgruntled soldiers tried to storm the Continental Congress essentially threatened them because of back-pay issues, members of Congress had to sneak out of Philadelphia in the middle of the night, and that left a very indelible image in the minds of the Framers of the Constitution, and they wanted to be sure that nothing like that would ever happen again, that they wanted to make sure that federal officials would not have to depend on state and local officials to provide for the safety and security of those who may visit our nation’s capital, those who may come to our nation’s capital to conduct the business of our nation. And so President Trump is exactly right to prioritize the safety and security of those who live, work, and visit our nation’s capital,” the legal scholar explained. 

When asked what the president could do with his time in charge of the D.C. police to have a long-term impact, Smith pointed to staffing up the law enforcement force. 

“[O]ne of the major issues that’s occurred over the past several years is the historic staffing crisis that the Metropolitan Police Department has faced,” Smith noted.

“[S]ome estimates say that it may take a decade or more for MPD to get back up to an appropriate staffing level. And so that’s why getting more bodies in the fight, more boots on the ground, is so very important, and why that is one of the most effective things that the president can do, right out of the gate,” he explained.

Smith also emphasized that Congress would need to act to keep control of the MPD under Trump after 30 days. 

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