Trump threatening to seize control of NYC — but experts say he has 'no clear legal path'

U.S. military personnel walk with boxes of Meals Ready-to-Eat, MREs, outside the D.C. Armory after U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement to deploy the National Guard and federalize the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 12, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

During a White House press conference on Monday, August 11, President Donald Trump promoted his plans to federalize law enforcement in Washington, D.C. Trump, in addition to employing federalized National Guard troops in the U.S. capital, is putting the D.C. Metropolitan Police under federal control.

Trump's critics fear that he will do the same thing in other U.S. cities with Democratic mayors, from Chicago to Philadelphia and Baltimore. Another possibility is New York City, which presently has a centrist Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, but could have a decidedly left-of-center mayor next year if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani wins the city's mayoral race in November.

Trump is calling Mamdani a "communist," which is inaccurate: Mamdani, a New York State lawmaker, identifies as a "democratic socialist" along the lines of his allies, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), but is not an full-fledged communist like Cuba's Fidel Castro or the Soviet Union's Nikita Khruschev.

In an article published on August 12, Gothamist reporter Ben Feuerherd examines the possibility of Trump federalizing law enforcement in New York City. And according to legal experts interviewed by Gothamist, putting the New York Police Department (NYPD) under federal control would be more difficulty and complicated than what Trump is doing in Washington, D.C.

"The legal experts said Trump could deploy the National Guard under specific circumstances, as he did during immigration protests in Los Angeles earlier this year," Feuerherd explains. "During his first term, Trump also deployed federal agents to guard federal property and buildings during protests in cities like Portland, Oregon. But there is no clear legal path for him to take over a police department like New York's, which is not subject to the same federal control as Washington."

Former federal prosecutor John Fishwick told Gothamist that for Trump, "there is not a clear legal pathway to take over the New York City government."

But Lenni Benson, a New York Law School professor, fears that Trump cannot be trusted to play by the rules.

Benson told Gothamist. "Mr. Trump’s administration seems to do first and ask questions later. So, yes, I think we can be alarmed."

Benson noted that New York State has some federal lands that Trump could send federal agents to.

The law professor told Gothamist, "It could be a national park. It could be a waterway that is navigable and covered by the Army Corp of Engineers for safety. It could be our harbors."

Read the full Gothamist article at this link.