Hundreds of National Guard troops were expected to arrive in Washington DC as President Donald Trump threatened a federal intervention in the city.
This decision follows Trump’s critical remarks on crime and homelessness in DC and his deployment of 120 FBI agents to collaborate with D.C. police and other federal law enforcement in the capital.
Trump emphasized the urgency on Truth Social: ‘The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will provide places for you, but FAR from the Capital,’ adding, ‘Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to incarcerate you where you belong.’
‘Be prepared! There will be no “MR. NICE GUY.” We want our Capital BACK.’
The president compared his approach in D.C. to his administration’s strict measures on illegal immigration at the southern border.
He plans to hold a press conference on the issue at The White House on Monday.
‘I’m committed to making our Capital safer and more beautiful than ever,’ he stated, vowing to ‘promptly clear out the city’s homeless population and swiftly tackle crime.’
‘It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border,’ Trump posted.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump promised to remove homeless individuals from the capital and incarcerate criminals, although Washington’s mayor maintains that crime is not currently spiking.
Trump’s Truth Social post also included pictures of tents and D.C. streets with garbage on them
Trump posted photos from the motorcade including some of roadside tents used by homeless
Trump claims crime has run rampant on the streets of Washington D.C.
The assignment to place the FBI on patrol is a very different task from their usual roles at the bureau of counterintelligence, public corruption and other divisions.
Indeed, the majority of agents do not have training on how to deal with traffic stops on the streets and other potentially dangerous encounters.
Agents will also come in from outside Washington including Philadelphia to help with the boost in staffing.
The Trump administration has not asked the D.C. police department on how the FBI agents should be deployed, reports The Washington Post.
As part of his capital cleanup, Trump went on to post online how he plans to evict homeless people from the nation’s capital and jail criminals, despite Washington’s mayor arguing there is no current spike in crime.
The White House declined to explain what legal authority Trump would use to evict people from Washington.
The Republican president controls only federal land and buildings in the city.
Trump is planning to hold a press conference on Monday to ‘stop violent crime in Washington, D.C.’
Other photos taken around the area sees garbage strewn along the side of busy highways
The pictures looked to have been taken out of the window from Trump’s motorcade
One photo sees a homeless person lying on the steps outside one of the capital’s municipal buildings
Trump posted a lengthy and rambling tweet suggesting how he would improve the capital
It was not clear whether he would announce more details about his eviction plan then.
Trump’s Truth Social post included pictures of tents and D.C. streets with some garbage on them.
According to the Community Partnership, an organization working to reduce homelessness in D.C., on any given night there are 3,782 single persons experiencing homelessness in the city of about 700,000 people.
Most of the homeless individuals are in emergency shelters or transitional housing. About 800 are considered unsheltered or ‘on the street,’ the organization says.
A White House official said on Friday that more federal law enforcement officers were being deployed in the city following a violent attack on Trump staffer Edward Coristine aka ‘Big Balls’ that angered the president.
‘Agents from the FBI Washington Field Office continue to participate in the increased federal law enforcement presence in D.C., which includes assisting our law enforcement partners,’ the FBI said in a statement Sunday morning.
The Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, insisted on Sunday the capital was ‘not experiencing a crime spike.’
‘It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023,’ Bowser said on MSNBC’s The Weekend.
FBI agents have begun to flood the streets of the capital as part of the Trump administration’s latest move to impose its will on the nation’s capital
A person asks for help along the Rock Creek Parkway last month in Washington, DC
A person sleeps on a bench on July 25 in Washington, DC. President Trump signed an executive order making it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the street
A woman braids her hair at a busy intersection in Washington, DC last month. Trump’s executive order makes it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the streets and move them to treatment centers
An unhoused person looks though their belongings in Freedom Plaza last month
A person asks for help in Washington, DC
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called the city’s violent crime rate the lowest in 30 years and said Trump is ‘very aware’ of the capital’s progress after a recent Oval Office meeting
‘We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.’
The city’s police department reports that violent crime in the first seven months of 2025 was down by 26% in D.C. compared with last year while overall crime was down about 7%.
Bowser said Trump is ‘very aware’ of the city’s work with federal law enforcement after meeting with Trump several weeks ago in the Oval Office.
The U.S. Congress has control of D.C.’s budget after the district was established in 1790 with land from neighboring Virginia and Maryland, but resident voters elect a mayor and city council.
For Trump to take over the city, Congress likely would have to pass a law revoking the law that established local elected leadership, which Trump would have to sign.
On Sunday, Bowser noted the president’s ability to call up the National Guard if he wanted, a tactic the administration used recently in Los Angeles after immigration protests over the objections of local officials.
