Washington DC is bracing for an influx of armed troops to crack down on crime as President Trump’s federal takeover was expected to launch into its next stage.
Trump vowed earlier this week to clean up the streets of the capital and has already sent hundreds of troops with the National Guard in to clean up crime.
More are on the way however, with officials saying they will have between 100 and 200 soldiers out on patrol at any given time as more arrive in the city, Col. Dave Butler said.
‘D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs. The White House is in charge,’ Trump said on Truth Social Wednesday night.
‘The Military and our Great Police will liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!’
After the announcement, residents started lining up to protest the crackdown.
‘Go home, fascists’ and ‘Get off our streets,’ the protesters shouted.
Law enforcement set up a vehicle checkpoint along the busy 14th Street Northwest corridor.
Some protesters stood at the intersection before the checkpoint and urged drivers to turn away from it, while shouting at officers to ‘take off their f****** masks’.
FBI agents walk down Florida Ave between 14th street NW and 13th street NW on August 13, 2025 in Washington, DC
Law enforcement set up a vehicle checkpoint along the busy 14th Street Northwest corridor, hecklers shouted, ‘Go home, fascists’ and ‘Get off our streets’
Images also emerged on Wednesday night of one individual being arrested by officers, authorities say he was driving without a license.
The commander-in-chief on Monday said the plan was to ‘rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor’.
Trump has repeatedly said that crime in the city was at emergency levels that required a federal intervention to straighten out.
District of Columbia leaders however pointed to stats that show violent crime was at a 30-year-low after a sharp rise two years ago.
Over the last few days small groups of officers had been visible in scattered areas across the city.
Their presence was more noticeable on Wednesday as the amount of boots on the ground continued to rise.
A National Guard spokesman, who spoke with the Associated Press anonymously, said troops would start carrying out more missions on Thursday.
On Wednesday, agents from Homeland Security Investigations patrolled the popular U Street corridor.
Drug Enforcement Administration officers were seen on the National Mall, while National Guard members were parked nearby.
President Donald Trump speaks at a White House press briefing flanked by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
Police detains a person for driving without a license in the Brightwood neighborhood
Officers are seen here searching the belongings of the man who was arrested for allegedly driving without a license
Trump has repeatedly said that crime in the city was at emergency levels that required a federal intervention to straighten out
DEA agents also joined Metropolitan Police Department officers on patrol in the Navy Yard neighborhood, while FBI agents stood along Massachusetts Avenue.
Hundreds of federal law enforcement and cops who patrolled the streets Tuesday night made 43 arrests, compared with about two dozen the night before.
The arrests made by 1,450 federal and local officers across the city included those for suspicion of driving under the influence and unlawful entry, as well as a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon, according to the White House. Seven illegal firearms were seized.
There have now been more than 100 arrests since Trump began beefing up the federal law enforcement presence in Washington last week, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.
Trump suggested he could seek a longer period of control or decide to call on Congress to exercise authority over city laws his administration sees as lax on crime.
‘We’re gonna do this very quickly. But we’re gonna want extensions. I don’t want to call a national emergency. If I have to, I will,’ he said.
His Wednesday night post added: ‘D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs. The White House is in charge.’
A protester confronts a Metropolitan Police Department officer in the U street neighborhood on August 13
Members of the military walk to the Guard’s headquarters at the D.C. Armory on August 12, 2025
Police Chief Pamela Smith said during an interview with the local Fox affiliate that the city’s Metro Police Department has been down nearly 800 officers.
She said the increased number of federal agents on the streets would help fill that gap, at least for now.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who described the move on Tuesday as being ‘authoritarian’, said officials did not get any specific goals for the surge during a meeting with Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi.
She said: ‘I think they regard it as a success to have more presence and take more guns off the street, and we do too.’
On Monday, the president also teased this type of action could extend to other major cities including New York City and Chicago.
‘This will go further,’ the President said. ‘We’re going to take back our capital … and then we’ll look at other cities also,’ before he singled out Chicago, LA, New York, Baltimore, and Oakland.
