WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has seized control of law enforcement operations in Washington, D.C., and instructed National Guard troops to take to the streets of the capital. This is being presented as a necessary response to an urgent public safety issue.

Though district officials expressed skepticism about the basis of this emergency measure, the president pledged to take “historic action to save our nation’s capital from crime, violence, chaos, and worse.” His statements mirror those of conservative leaders over the years who criticize U.S. cities, particularly those with majority non-white populations or progressive leadership, as lawless and requiring external intervention.

“This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump promised Monday.

Trump’s action echoes uncomfortable historical chapters

For many residents, the arrival of federal troops in their neighborhoods feels like an alarming encroachment on local governance. Some perceive this action as reminiscent of troubling historical instances where similar rhetoric was used to depict historically or predominantly Black areas negatively, influencing public perception and justifying increased policing.

April Goggans, a Washington resident and activist, was not caught off guard by Trump’s decision. Since the summer of 2020, when Trump sent National Guard troops during protests over George Floyd’s murder, communities have been bracing for potential federal actions in the city.

“We must remain alert,” said Goggans, who has organized protests and civic education for almost ten years. She is concerned about the implications of increased law enforcement on residents’ rights.

“No matter your political stance, recognize that it could affect you, your family, or your community members who might experience brutality or rights violations,” she emphasized.

Uncertainty about what’s a safe environment raises alarms

According to White House officials, National Guard troops will be deployed to protect federal assets in the district and facilitate a safe environment for law enforcement to make arrests. The administration believes the highly visible presence of law enforcement will deter violent crime.

It is unclear how the administration defines providing a safe environment for law enforcement to conduct arrests, raising alarm bells for some local advocates.

“The president foreshadowed that if these heavy-handed tactics take root here, they will be rolled out to other majority-Black and Brown cities, like Chicago, Oakland and Baltimore, across the country,” said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s D.C. chapter.

“We’ve seen before how federal control of the D.C. National Guard and police can lead to abuse, intimidation and civil rights violations — from military helicopters swooping over peaceful racial justice protesters in 2020 to the unchecked conduct of federal officers who remain shielded from full accountability,” Hopkins said.

A history of denigrating language

Conservative lawmakers have for generations used denigrating language to describe the condition of major American cities and called for greater law enforcement, often in response to changing demographics in those cities driven by nonwhite populations relocating in search of work or safety from racial discrimination and state violence. Republicans have called for greater police crackdowns in cities since at least the 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles.

President Richard Nixon won the White House in 1968 after campaigning on a “law and order” agenda to appeal to white voters in northern cities alongside overtures to white Southerners as part of his “Southern Strategy.” Ronald Reagan similarly won both his presidential elections after campaigning heavily on law and order politics. Politicians ranging from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to former President Bill Clinton have cited the need to tamp down crime as a reason to seize power from cities like Washington for decades.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump’s takeover of the local police force “unsettling” but not without precedent. The mayor kept a mostly measured tone during a Monday news conference following Trump’s announcement but decried the president’s reasoning as a “so-called emergency” and said the district’s residents “know that access to our democracy is tenuous.”

Trump threatened to “take over” and “beautify” the nation’s capital on the campaign trail and claimed the district was “a nightmare of murder and crime.” He also argued the city was “horribly run” and said his team intended “to take it away from the mayor.” The president repeated comments he’d previously made about some of the nation’s largest cities during his news conference, including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, California, and his hometown of New York City. All are currently run by Black mayors.

“You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities in a very bad, New York is a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don’t even mention that anymore. They’re so far gone. We’re not going to let it happen,” he said.

Civil rights advocates see the president’s rhetoric as part of a broader political strategy.

“It’s a playbook he’s used in the past,” said Maya Wiley, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The president’s rhetoric “paints a picture that crime is out of control, even when it is not true, then blames the policies of Democratic lawmakers that are reform- and public safety-minded, and then claims that you have to step in and violate people’s rights or demand that reforms be reversed,” Wiley said.

She added that the playbook has special potency in the capital because the district’s local law enforcement can be directly placed under federal control, a power Trump invoked in his announcement.

Civil rights leaders denounce DC order as unjustified distraction

Trump’s actions in Washington and comments about other major American cities sent shock waves across the country, as other cities prepare to respond to potential federal action.

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Trump’s plan “lacks seriousness and is deeply dangerous” in a statement and pointed to a 30-year-low crime rate in Baltimore as a reason the administration should consult local leaders rather than antagonize them. In Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee called Trump’s characterization of the city “fearmongering.”

The administration already faced a major flashpoint between local control and federal power earlier in the summer, when Trump deployed National Guard troops to quell protests and support immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles despite opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Civil rights leaders have denounced Trump’s action in Washington as an unjustified distraction.

“This president campaigned on ‘law and order,’ but he is the president of chaos and corruption,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. “There’s no emergency in D.C., so why would he deploy the National Guard? To distract us from his alleged inclusion in the Epstein files? To rid the city of unhoused people? D.C. has the right to govern itself. It doesn’t need this federal coup.”