WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Monday that he’s deploying the National Guard across Washington and taking over the city’s police department in the hopes of reducing crime, even as the city’s mayor has noted that crime is falling in the nation’s capital.

The Republican president, who said he was formally declaring a public safety emergency, compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others.

Trump also said at his news briefing that his administration has started removing homeless encampments “from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks.”

“We're getting rid of the slums, too,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. would not lose its citie

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