FBI agents patrol the Navy Yard neighbourhood yesterday in Washington, DC. Photo / Craig Hudson, for The Washington Post
A split screen emerged in the first 48 hours of President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal law enforcement and the National Guard onto Washington DC streets.
There was rhetoric from the United States President painting the city as a crime-addled wasteland, which DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (Democrat) condemned.
And, on the ground, there was a surge in federal resources bolstering DC police - which she and the police chief welcomed.
The impact of Trump’s federal actions came into view yesterday, with National Guard troops on the ground and agents from numerous federal agencies roaming DC streets from the National Mall to busy corridors in Columbia Heights.
The White House said it would soon become a 24/7 affair, with a significantly greater National Guard presence - and Trump said he intended to ask Congress to extend the emergency allowing him to federalise DC police beyond 30 days.
“We’re going to be asking for extensions on that - long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days,” Trump said, adding that his Administration would be pushing a crime bill to use the city as “a very positive example”.
Spokespeople for Bowser and Attorney-General Brian Schwalb (D) declined to comment.
Trump’s executive action represents the most extraordinary federal intervention into the city’s home rule in decades, coming as violent crime is at 30-year lows following a historic spike in 2023, according to DC police data.
So far, top DC officials said, the order was playing out as more of a collaborative partnership.
That’s even as they feared Trump’s repeated denigrations of the nation’s capital as a dirty city unsafe for residents and visitors could do permanent damage to its image on the national stage.
Bowser encapsulated the parallel reactions as she deployed dual messaging in two public appearances over the course of 15 hours.
Speaking to community leaders on Zoom, Bowser called Trump’s actions an “authoritarian push” in her firmest condemnation yet, as she began to more forcefully dispute the disparaging characterisation of the District that Trump has repeatedly painted.
“We don’t live in a dirty city. We are not 700,000 scumbags and punks. We don’t have neighbourhoods that should be bulldozed. We have to be clear about our story,” Bowser said.
She said “we need to do what we can in our space, in our lane, to protect our city and protect our autonomy” to “get to the other side of this guy”.
But appearing on FOX5 yesterday, a more tempered Bowser, along with DC Police Chief Pamela Smith, said a boost in law enforcement efforts from federal partners could help the city further drive down crime and get more guns off the street.
It mirrored the kind of pragmatic approach the mayor presiding over the deep-blue city has taken for months in the second Trump Administration.
“What we want to do is make sure this federal surge is useful for us, and that’s what the chief has been very, very good in working to accomplish,” Bowser said.
“You’re talking about 500 additional personnel in the District of Columbia,” Smith said. “We’re down in numbers with our DC police officers. So this enhanced presence is going to impact us in a positive way.”
DC Council chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said in an interview that there were “two realities” at play: one asserted from the White House lectern, where Trump said the federal takeover of DC police would rescue the city from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor” - and the other being “what’s actually happening”.
By all indications, he said, federal agencies were not “trying to boss MPD” around and, in fact, were soliciting ideas about how they could be helpful - the type of collaboration Mendelson said he agreed with Bowser is welcome.
Smith said that she provided a strategic plan to Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole, whom Trump tapped to oversee DC police.
“I think collaborating with MPD and providing additional resources can only be for the good,” Mendelson said.
“But the President has a national platform, and he’s painted the city as a cesspool of crime. We know that’s not true, but that is damaging to the city.”
Trump continued targeting DC as he touted his mission to make the city “safe and beautiful”. He said he expected Republicans to “unanimously” approve an extension of the emergency in DC through a joint resolution - although they typically are subject to the Senate filibuster and would require support of Democrats.
He added, “I don’t want to call a national emergency - if I have to I will,” suggesting he could consider an alternative route to go around Congress.
Trump said that his Administration was working with DC police and Bowser - “a very nice woman” - but that “we gotta do the job”.
“She’s been here for many years and the numbers are worse than they ever were,” he said, dismissing data DC officials have been citing.
He called the movement for statehood “ridiculous” and said he would make DC the most beautiful capital city in the world.
Calling the city “dirty”, he said he would put a small amount of money toward fix-ups, including road and median improvements.
“We need a beautiful topping by a very talented asphalt-type person, somebody that does the job. When I get contractors I use great contractors,” he said.
The strategy guiding the federal law enforcement surge seemed in flux yesterday. The surge has surpassed 100 arrests since the operation began, according to a White House official. The tally from the White House includes serving 10 warrants and 23 immigration enforcement actions.
When it comes to measuring the federal operation’s success, Bowser said on FOX5 that in her meeting with Attorney-General Pam Bondi and other federal partners yesterday, no clear metric for success was offered.
She said it could include sweeping more illegal guns off the street.
“We certainly want to know what we’re being measured against, and they regard it as a success to have more presence and to take more guns off the street, and we do too. That’s what MPD works on every single day, is taking more guns off the street.”
Agents and officers detailed to the surge have received assignments on a day-to-day basis, according to multiple people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details.
In most cases, federal agents less familiar with policing the city have been paired with DC police officers or officers with the US Secret Service Uniformed Division, the people said. About 130 FBI agents have been detailed to the effort, including agents dispatched on temporary assignments from the bureau’s Philadelphia and Baltimore field offices, two people said.
On the first two nights of the operation, they conducted joint patrols with DC police officers or assisted in arrests tied to open warrants.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that agents have been involved with local partners in making at least 18 arrests, including apprehending one suspect wanted for murder as well others wanted for DUI, theft, assault and violating a restraining order. Agents also detained several people for illegal gun possession, he said.
Roughly half of the 800 National Guard troops who were mobilised have processed in, and some of those troops are already on DC streets, said an Army official. The troops were not carrying guns but had weapons available if needed, the official said.
The use of the National Guard brings to bear the threats that Trump has lobbed at the city’s autonomy for months and, critics fear, exposes residents to potentially unpredictable encounters with a domestically deployed military force.
While the National Guard was preparing to activate, Bowser spent an hour answering residents’ questions in a video chat live-streamed on social media.
She acknowledged that she did not know exactly how the federal resources would be deployed, but she said her expectation was that the National Guard troops would be deployed to federal parks, monuments and federal buildings, while federal law enforcement would be deployed to higher-crime areas of the city.
Even while Bowser and Smith have sounded positive notes about collaboration, residents raised concerns about the potential consequences of having federal law enforcement on city streets and interacting with residents or intimidating children.
The mayor pledged to create an avenue for people to report concerning behaviour by federal officers, and she said she would think about ways to make the police presence feel less intimidating.
She encouraged parents to keep close tabs on their children, voicing her wariness that any misbehaviour involving large groups of teens could become a political target during Trump’s operation.
“I think we have some kids that are not criminals, but they are getting together in big groups and causing some really - they’re causing destruction,” she said.
“And so this is the type of thing that makes for good TV. And to be candid, that’s part of the motivation, I think, is to get some good TV and arrests in DC. So, don’t let your kids be a part of that.”
She also described an apparent tension. While she said she was “really ticked off” about the Trump Administration’s incursion on her turf, she also felt the moment demanded pragmatism.
“My jobs are many right now - and part of it is just practically managing us through this crisis,” Bowser said.
- Tara Copp, Jeremy Roebuck, Derek Hawkins, Olivia George, Dan Lamothe, Sophia Solano and Katie Mettler contributed to this report.