President Donald Trump said Monday he’s putting Washington’s police department under federal control and ordering the National Guard to deploy to the nation’s capital to combat what he said is a wave of lawlessness.
“I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, D.C.,” Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.”
Trump formally declared a public safety emergency and compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others.
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