Donald Trump has sparked outrage and renewed calls for his impeachment after announcing that the National Guard will patrol Washington, D.C., for the next 30 days, granting police what critics describe as alarming new powers.
The former president unveiled the plan on August 11 following meetings with officials about making the U.S. capital “safer and more beautiful.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump declared there would be no “Mr. Nice Guy” in his efforts to clean up the city, ordering the homeless to “move out IMMEDIATELY” and promising to restore D.C. to what he called “the most beautiful capital in the world.”
Citing what he claimed were soaring homicide rates, Trump described Washington as a “sanctuary for illegal alien criminals” plagued by “lawlessness.” He declared a public safety emergency and invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, authorizing a federal takeover of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department.
However, official statistics show violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low—making Trump’s characterization sharply at odds with the data. Even more controversial was his statement that police officers could now “do whatever the hell they want” when met with hostility.
“That’s the only language they understand,” Trump told reporters. “You spit, and we hit, and they can hit real hard.” He claimed police had been restricted from defending themselves, something critics insist has never been true.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the move “unsettling and unprecedented,” though not surprising given Trump’s rhetoric.
Online reaction was swift and fierce. On Reddit, one user wrote, “The Trump police state is upon us.” Another called him an “evil b***ard” and demanded “impeachment immediately.” Others warned the order was a direct step toward authoritarian policing. “It’s not a slippery slope. It’s a road map,” one comment read.
The National Guard’s deployment in D.C. follows a similar operation in Los Angeles in June, when Trump sent 5,000 troops to quell protests over immigration raids—marking the first such federal action in California in 60 years without a governor’s consent. That move is now under legal scrutiny.
A federal judge in San Francisco is considering whether Trump violated the law by using the National Guard to enforce domestic law. California’s legal filing argues that deploying “standing armies” without state approval violates fundamental constitutional principles. The Trump administration maintains the interventions are lawful under existing statutes.
Despite backlash, Trump defended his latest order as “historic action” to “rescue” D.C. from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor.” He called the start of the operation “liberation day” for the capital.
The federal takeover is set to last 30 days, with 800 National Guard troops joining local police on the streets.