Federal law enforcement is set to flood Washington, D.C. streets for the next week in an intensified crime crackdown ordered by President Donald Trump. The move reignites his long-standing suggestion that the federal government should take back control of the capital.
Announcing the plan late Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the nation’s capital “an amazing city” but one that “has been plagued by violent crime for far too long.” She said Trump has “directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens” and warned that “there will be no safe harbor for violent criminals in D.C.”
The heightened deployment begins at midnight, with U.S. Park Police leading the first wave after an 11 p.m. roll call at a command center. The seven-day operation, which can be extended “as needed,” falls under Trump’s earlier executive order creating the Making DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force.
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According to the White House, personnel from multiple agencies, including the U.S. Capitol Police, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service, the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C., will be on the streets in marked units and clearly identifiable. Police forces for Amtrak and the city’s Metro rail system are also taking part.
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Despite the announcement, a two-hour survey of the city between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Friday revealed nothing like the multi-agency surge the administration described. Aside from a visible but routine Metropolitan Police Department presence in nightlife hubs such as 14th Street and Florida Avenue, there were no obvious signs of the coordinated federal force.
Trump, who has frequently claimed the city is unsafe, has also taken to criticizing trash, graffiti, and urban decay in recent weeks. His latest order followed a high-profile attempted carjacking last weekend targeting Edward Coristine, better known as “Big Balls”, a key figure in the Department of Government Efficiency, which was created to slash jobs and reduce the federal workforce. Two 15-year-olds have been arrested, and authorities are searching for more suspects.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump warned on Truth Social earlier in the week.
He has also floated repealing the Home Rule Act of 1973, the law that grants the District limited self-governance, or even deploying the National Guard “maybe very quickly.” Such steps would face major political pushback. “We have a capital that’s very unsafe,” Trump told reporters. “We have to run D.C.”
The announcement comes as Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration points to declining violent crime rates after a 2023 spike. Citywide carjackings dropped from 957 in 2023 to under 500 in 2024, and fewer than 200 have been recorded so far in 2025, more than halfway through the year.
