Trump’s DC police takeover could face a crucial test in a month

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to place Washington, DC, under total federal control to reduce crime, even if city officials have pointed out that crime is already down.

Trump announced two main fronts on Monday in this response from his administration: the federalization of the city’s police forces as well as the deployment of the national guard troops. Although Trump has some authority over the capital’s police forces and the soldiers of the National Guard, a complete federal takeover would probably be blocked in court.

Here is a more in -depth look.

What does the Constitution say on DC?

The American Constitution, ratified in 1787, provided for the creation of a district of the federal capital to serve as a permanent seat of the government.

The Constitution clearly indicated that the Congress had a complete legislative authority on the district. But the congress has historically delegated at least a little daily work of the municipal government to other entities.

How is DC governed?

A federal law adopted by Congress in 1973, known as Home Rule Act, allowed the city’s residents to elect a mayor and a council, who have a certain autonomy to adopt their own laws.

Congress still has budgetary monitoring on DC, however, and can cancel local law. The federal organization did it more recently in 2023, voting to reverse the changes in the laws of Washington which reduced the sanctions for certain crimes.

The National Guard DC

Trump has a large control of the 2,700 soldiers and aviators of the DC National Guard. They fall directly from the president, unlike the counterparts of other states and territories.

Trump said 800 members of the National Guard would be deployed, but the army later said that 100 to 200 of the troops will be on the city streets at any time.

“Their functions will include a range of tasks of the administration, logistics and physical presence in support of the police,” according to a statement from the army, to which the District of the Columbia National Guard has led all questions.

About 500 federal law enforcement agents are assigned to patrols in Washington, including FBI; Alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives office; Administration of the application of drugs; Immigration and customs application (ICE); and the marshal service.

According to the army, guard troops will be deployed under title 32 or the authority of the “federal status of the State”. This means that troops can carry out activities to apply the law in the streets of the national capital – however, for the moment, this does not seem to be the plan.

Asked about Fox News on Monday evening if the troops would hold Americans, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said: “They will not be involved in the application of the law”, before adding: “I will be their back to ensure that they will be able to take the necessary measures to protect the citizens of DC and to protect themselves.”

He said that the troops could have people, then put them back to the police, as was done earlier this year in Los Angeles. However, the Governor of California and Los Angeles officials argued that federal deployment was not necessary given the relatively low scope of anti-immigration demonstrations, and this week, a federal judge has a major trial on the question of whether the militarization was legal.

The calendar for the deployment of DC troops is vaguely defined. According to Trump’s directive, the national guard troops will remain deployed until the president determines “that the conditions of the law and the order have been restored”.

After Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to protest against the results of the 2020 presidential election, he never deployed the goalkeeper. He falsely claimed that Nancy Pelosi, then president of the Chamber, rejected the deployment of the national guard troops to help brake violence, and in the following months, Trump had signed an order of 20,000 guard troops to go to the Capitol at the breakdown of the event, a claim rejected by his defense secretary at the time, Chris Miller.

It was later revealed that it was Vice-President Mike Pence, while being safe in the Capitol, who finally called Miller and the Pentagon to bring these reinforcements.

The law on the interior rule and the police DC

The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has authority over the city’s metropolitan police service. But the law on the domicile rule allows an American president to take control of the MPD for federal purposes in the event of an emergency if “special conditions of an emergency of emergency exist”.

Trump invoked this part of the law on the rule of domicile on Monday, but a presidential takeover is limited to 30 days, unless the congress votes to extend it by a joint resolution.

The repeal of the law on the rule of domicile would require 60 votes to the American Senate, where the republican party of Trump has an advantage of 53-47. The Democrats supported the rule of the house for DC – some even support the district which takes care of the state – and should not cross the lines of the parties.

But Trump has great authority to reassign FBI staff. For example, FBI agents across the country have recently received temporary assignments to help the application of immigration.

Trump said in an executive decree that there was an “crime emergency” in the city which requires federal management of the police service. The administration seized an alleged assault of a person employed at the Ministry of Elon Musk government, for which teenage attackers were arrested.

An “urgency of crime” is a questionable assertion-while the city, as well as several others in the United States, saw homicide rates fall at pre-pale levels in 2024 after a peak, the per capita homicide rate of Washington was among the five highest in the country in 2023 and 2024.

But the peak of 2023 in homicides – 274 was recorded in the whole – is less than 1988 to 1996, when a crack epidemic helped to feed a total of homicide between 360 and 480 murders each year, when the population of Washington was comparable or even smaller than it has been in recent years.

Can Trump expel homeless DCs?

Trump said the homeless had to leave Washington, without offering details of a plan to get there.

“The homeless must move, immediately. We will give you places to stay, but far from the capital,” he posted on Truth Social.

The federal government has a large part of the Washington park, so that the Trump administration has the legal power to clean homeless camps in these regions – as President Joe Biden did during his duties, supported by Bowser.

In addition, a decision of the Supreme Court in 2024 gave the localities a great power to enforce the ordinances preventing homelessness. But the federal government cannot force people to leave the city because they lack shelter, experts told Reuters.