President Donald Trump is considering deploying hundreds of members of the National Guard in Washington D.C. in the latest step in his campaign to make the city “safer and more beautiful.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email on Sunday for comment. Trump is due to hold a news conference on his plans for the nation’s capital on Monday.
Why It Matters
The president has the powers to deploy the National Guard in Washington, but, as in other parts of the country, the National Guard has usually been deployed to quell civil unrest.
While there is a heated debate about crime in the capital, police data actually shows that violent crime has fallen this year.
U.S. Park Police perform a traffic stop in front of the Washington Monument on August 8, 2025.
U.S. Park Police perform a traffic stop in front of the Washington Monument on August 8, 2025.
Andrew Leyden/Getty Images
What To Know
Reuters, citing an unidentified official, said Trump was considering the deployment of National Guard personnel, but added that the president had not made a final decision and the number of troops and their role was being determined.
NBC said Trump may use up to 1,000 National Guard troops and could make an announcement on Monday, three officials said.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump declared that homeless people must leave Washington “immediately,” promising they would be relocated “far from the capital” as part of his effort to make the city “safer and more beautiful.”
“I’m going to make our capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before, ” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.”
He did not mention the National Guard.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that the president had authorized the deployment of up to 120 FBI agents to Washington streets to assist law enforcement in combating violent crime and carjackings.
The agents would be reassigned from counterintelligence and public corruption divisions to overnight patrol shifts alongside city police.
The FBI agents, primarily from the Washington Field Office, would work shifts for at least a week, supporting police during traffic stops and patrols, two sources familiar with the matter told the Post.
The operation extended beyond FBI deployment, with the Secret Service and U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division also receiving orders to launch special patrols.
Federal Overreach
The Trump administration has not consulted D.C.’s law-enforcement leadership on optimal deployment strategies for federal resources, according to senior district officials.
Bypassing city leaders raised concerns about federal overreach and the undermining of D.C.’s limited self-governance while setting a precedent for using federal authority to override local decision-making in other U.S. territories.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser questioned the effectiveness of using the National Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court.
“I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard,” she said Sunday on MSNBC‘s The Weekend, acknowledging it is “the president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.”
“Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false,” she said.
Trump’s campaign targets both crime and homelessness through the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force” established in March.
Crime has been in focus in the city since an attack in the early hours of August 3 on a former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Edward Coristine was set upon by a group of teenagers during an attempted carjacking. Two 15-year-olds were arrested as they attempted to flee the scene, police said.
A picture of a bloodied, shirtless Coristine sitting on a street after the attack was shared on Truth Social by Trump, who posted that crime was “out of control.”
But city crime data contradicts Trump’s characterization of rampant violence.
Violent crime has dropped 26 percent compared with the same period in 2024, with homicides down 12 percent and carjackings down 37 percent. Juvenile arrests have decreased nearly 20 percent, though approximately 200 charges involve violent crimes.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump, on Truth Social on Sunday, said of his Monday press conference: “It will not only involve ending the Crime, Murder, and Death in our Nation’s Capital, but will also be about Cleanliness and the General Physical Renovation and Condition of our once beautiful and well maintained Capital.”
What Happens Next
The president will elaborate on his plans for the city at his news conference at 10 a.m. ET on Monday.
This article contains additional reporting by The Associated Press.