President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will be deploying the National Guard to Washington D.C. in an effort to fight back on crime, despite Mayor Muriel Bowser rejecting his claim of a crime spike.
“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” said Trump in a press conference, “Our capital city has been overtaken by gangs and blood-thristy criminals… and we aren’t going to let it happen anymore.”
Bowser denied these claims saying that crime in the nation’s capital is at a 30-year low, and that “this action today is unsettling and unprecedented.”
Trump said he is sending 800 guards to the Capitol and is placing the city’s police department under federal control. He invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency.”
“The president’s view of DC is shaped by his COVID-era experience during his first term. It is true we experienced a crime spike post-COVID,” said Bowser, “This year, crime isn’t just down from 2023. It’s also down from 2019, before the pandemic.”
“I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” said Trump.
Samantha Davis, Black Swan Academy Founder and Executive Director, said, “This is not about crime. This is about control. This is not about public safety. This is about power.”
The last time the National Guard was deployed to D.C. was in 2021 during a Capitol riot.
