Washington D.C, 13August(HS): The nation’s capital awoke to the sight of camouflaged troops and armored vehicles on its streets, as President Donald Trump moved to seize policing authority and flood the city with National Guard forces. The move, billed as a crackdown on violent crime, has triggered fierce political backlash from city leaders who view it as a dangerous overreach.
On Tuesday evening, soldiers deployed to tourist hubs and government precincts, erecting barricades and patrolling alongside federal agents. The White House confirmed the arrival of 800 National Guard personnel and 500 additional federal law enforcement officers — a force Trump says is only “the beginning” of an aggressive federal surge targeting violent offenders.
In the first night of operations, 23 suspects were arrested on charges ranging from homicide and gun crimes to drug trafficking and reckless driving. FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that bureau agents were involved in roughly half the arrests.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, initially struck a note of cautious cooperation with federal forces to “maximize” their impact but later sharpened her criticism, accusing Trump of mounting an “authoritarian push” and urging residents to defend the capital’s home rule.
The deployment comes just after the city marked its 100th homicide of the year, following a brazen shooting in the upscale Logan Circle neighborhood — a short walk from the White House. While DC police data shows violent crime plummeted 35% last year to a three-decade low, the city’s police union claims those figures are manipulated, while FBI statistics suggest only a modest 9% drop.
For Trump, the move in DC could be a prelude to similar interventions in New York and Chicago. For Bowser, it is a flashpoint in a fight over local autonomy. And for Washingtonians, it’s a stark new reality: their streets lined with troops, under the cautious gaze of a city caught between crime fears and constitutional debate.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
