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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Here’s what could happen if Trump brings the National Guard to DC
By Shania Shelton, CNN
Updated:
12:26 AM EDT, Fri August 8, 2025
Source: CNN
President Donald Trump this week reignited his threat that the federal
government will take over and “run” Washington, DC, after a was
assaulted in an attempted carjacking.
Trump said Wednesday he is considering having his administration take
over the DC Police Department and might deploy the National Guard to DC
over recent crime.
After those comments, the White House announced the starting Thursday
night. The effort, a White House official said, will include US Capitol
Police, FBI, US Marshals Service, DC Police, DEA and other agencies.
DC National Guard spokesperson Master Sgt. Arthur Wright told CNN on
Friday morning the branch had not been activated, adding that any
“presence of National Guardsmen and vehicles seen this week and
throughout the weekend are related to required training for UTA (Unit
Training Assembly).”
Still, experts say Trump can’t unilaterally federalize DC, and that
calling federal troops into the city would be unusual, especially since
the district does not appear to be suffering from a significant crime
spike.
DC’s Home Rule
The US Congress has authority and oversight over DC. But it ceded some
of that power when it passed the Home Rule in 1973, giving some of its
ability to govern the city to local government entities, including the
mayor and city council.
Trump said this week he was going “to look at” overturning Home
Rule, saying, “the lawyers are already studying it.”
But such an act would require a vote by Congress, said Jill Hasday, a
constitutional law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.
“To fully remove local control over DC, Congress would have to repeal
the Home Rule Act. So, if what the president has in mind is complete
federal control over DC, in other words, no possibilities and no room
for local control, that would require repealing the Home Rule Act,”
Hasday said.
How the National Guard could play a role
The DC National Guard’s 2,700 soldiers and airmen report only to the
president, unlike their counterparts in other states.
Trump told reporters this week he’s considering “bringing in the
National Guard, maybe very quickly, too.”
William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and
international affairs at Syracuse University, said Trump’s command of
guard troops in the district makes it easier for them to participate in
law enforcement “on behalf of the government,” which would
typically require a governor’s request.
“By statute, the president is made the commander of the DC Guard. In
every other place, every other state, it’s the governor. Here, it’s
the president,” Banks said.
When to federalize the National Guard in response to protests in Los
Angeles earlier this year, experts told CNN the troops could not make
arrests unless Trump invoked the Insurrection Act.
Claire Finkelstein, Algernon Biddle professor of law and professor of
philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, said the National Guard
should leave anything related to law enforcement to the police.
Banks said any national authorities in DC would “have the same limits
on their authority that they would anywhere else.”
“They have to respect the constitutional rights of the people so they
can’t intimidate, they can’t search and seize without a reasonable
suspicion of criminal wrongdoing,” he said. “They can’t target
individuals on the basis of their political beliefs or their political
expression.”
What happened in 2020
The idea of federal troops patrolling DC could invoke for residents
memories of 2020, to respond to protests stemming from the police
killing of .
The city’s status as a district, not a state, allows the president,
and in turn the federal government, more leeway in directing troops and
a range of federal authorities.
The response to the protests included personnel from the National
Guard, FBI and ICE, along with the Secret Service, Park Police, the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement
Administration, US Marshals Service, Bureau of Prisons, Customs and
Border Protection, the Federal Protective Service and the
Transportation Security Administration.
The presence of federal authorities elicited criticism from DC
officials and resulted in a stream of images of authorities dressed in
full fatigues patrolling the streets of the city’s downtown.
Crime is down in DC
Hasday said another reason the move would be unprecedented is because
it is “not clear that DC is, in fact, undergoing a public safety
crisis,” Hasday said. Although there’s violent crime in DC, just as
there is everywhere, Hasday said she hasn’t seen any outside sources
claim the situation is beyond the capacity of local police.
Despite Trump’s repeated claims of increased crime in DC, 2025 crime
numbers are lower than last year’s, according to a preliminary
year-to-date crime comparison from DC Police.
Banks said bringing in outsiders would be “against the grain” of
how Americans like for laws to be enforced.
“The background principle in the United States is that we like to
have our laws enforced by civilians, by police, and we like it to be at
the local level, people that are soldiers, cops, if you will, who are
close to us. They’re our friends and neighbors. They live in our
community,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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