President Donald Trump said Monday he’s placing the Washington, D.C., police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to make the nation’s capital safer.

Trump said he wants to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor.”

"This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back," he said.

The Democratic mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, has noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023.

Trump cited a number of recent high-profile incidents, including the killing of a 21-year-old Congressional intern and the beating of a DOGE staffer during an attempted carjacking.

“This is liberation day in D.C. and we’re going to take our Capitol back,” the president said.

Trump said he would start with D.C., but the wider crackdown on crime would go further to other Americans.

AP Video Dan Huff