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Trump cooks up a new reason to occupy DC [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-09-15
President Donald Trump is once again threatening to seize control of the Washington police department—this time over the city’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
In a lengthy Truth Social post early Monday, Trump said that he’s prepared to declare a new national emergency to keep National Guard troops in the capital, warning that crime “would come roaring back” if Mayor Muriel Bowser doesn’t work with ICE to deport “dangerous illegal aliens.”
“To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN,” Trump wrote. “I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”
Left with nothing better to do, a National Guard member picks up trash in Washington, D.C.
Trump has repeatedly framed his intervention as a crime-fighting success, insisting that he turned the city from one of the “most dangerous and murder ridden cities” into one of the safest “in just a few weeks.”
But the statistics tell a different story.
Violent crime had already been trending down since 2023 as part of a national decline that saw homicide rates plunge across the country. But since that didn’t serve Trump’s narrative, the Justice Department has now opened a criminal investigation into whether the Washington police department manipulated crime statistics to make the city look safer than it really is.
The latest flare-up followed a mayoral order this month establishing an “emergency operations center” to coordinate with federal law enforcement—notably excluding ICE. Bowser has been explicit about that omission.
“Immigration enforcement is not what the [Metropolitan Police Department] does. And with the end of the emergency, it won’t be what MPD does in the future,” Bowser said last week.
Trump also accused Bowser of bowing to “pressure from the Radical Left Democrats,” after having previously praised her for cooperating with federal authorities. His post amounts to renewed pressure on the mayor and another public test of presidential power over the nation’s capital.
Daily Kos contacted Bowser’s office Monday, but it declined to comment.
The standoff comes just days after the 30-day federal control, which Trump invoked on Aug. 11, expired. That order federalized the police, mobilized the National Guard, and brought more than 2,000 federal agents into the capital—many of whom remain on patrol.
Congress declined to extend the emergency, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying that an extension was not necessary. Meanwhile, lawmakers are debating more than a dozen bills that would further curtail Washington’s autonomy—including measures to remove the elected attorney general or let the president appoint the post.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser
Data undercuts the narrative that the operation was primarily about violent crime, which sits at a 30-year low in Washington. An analysis by The Associated Press found that more than 40% of arrests during the month-long operation were immigration-related—indicating that the surge was more akin to a deportation sweep than a crime crackdown. The White House has touted that 943 immigrants were arrested during the operation, representing roughly 41% of arrests.
And Bowser has been blunt about the human costs, warning that ICE’s tactics were “terrorizing communities.”
“I am devastated by people living in fear,” she said last month.
Washington’s status leaves local leaders with limited tools. Once undocumented residents are arrested, the city has little power to prevent deportation proceedings because federal authorities control parts of its judicial system.
Whether the operation genuinely improved public safety remains up for debate. On the one hand, crime has fallen, homeless encampments have been cleared, and ICE has taken hundreds into custody. But tourism has dried up, restaurants are hurting, protests have erupted, and National Guard members have had nothing to do but pick up trash.
Still, Trump insists that his version of Washington is thriving.
“The ‘place’ is absolutely booming, with restaurants, stores, and businesses packed and, for the first time in decades, virtually NO CRIME,” he wrote.
The fiscal cost is steep, too. Early estimates put the operation at roughly $1 million per day—a bill that taxpayers may continue to shoulder if the White House presses for more federal involvement.
But for now, the showdown highlights how a president’s immigration priorities can swiftly collide with a city’s limited self-governance—and how fragile the balance of local control and federal authority can be in the nation’s capital.
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