President Trump is deploying the D.C. National Guard and taking temporary control of the city's police force, marking a significant escalation in his long-running threats to federalize the nation's capital .

"I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse," Trump said Monday . "This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we're going to take our capital back."

Despite Trump's claims, overall violent crime has dropped sharply in D.C. after spiking in the city and around the country after COVID. Violent crime reached a 30-year low in 2024 and is further down 26% from this time last year, according to data from D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Nonetheless, Trump is authorized to deploy the National Guard and ass

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