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WASHINGTON – Although President Donald Trump threatened to extend his takeover of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department to fight crime and homelessness to other cities, it can't be replicated elsewhere, according to legal experts.
The capital's unique status as a federal city, rather than part of a state, grants the federal government unique power to manage it directly. But the president is unlikely to be able to take control of the entire DC government because that would require a change in federal law, which would be difficult to get through the Senate.
Trump also has special authority to deploy the National Guard in DC, in contrast to governors traditionally overseeing mobilizations in their states. But the military is typically blocked from participating directly in law enforcement, which is why California filed a federal lawsuit against Trump’s recent deployment of thousands of troops in Los Angeles.
“DC as a federal enclave is fundamentally different than a state or a local government,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, told USA TODAY.
Here’s what to know about Trump’s authority to bolster law enforcement in states and cities − and the limitations on that power:
Trump becomes first to take over DC police under 1973 Home Rule Act
The Constitution, ratified in 1787, provided for a federal capital district to serve as the seat of government controlled by Congress, and DC was founded a few years later. In 1973, Congress approved the Home Rule Act that gave the city a mayor and city council.
But Congress kept control over the city’s spending and the ability to overturn DC laws, as happened in 2023 when the council tried to reduce penalties for some crimes. A provision in DC law allows the president to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department temporarily during an emergency.
“I think Washington, DC, is the only city where the president can do that,” Tom Manger, the former chief of Capitol police and departments in the DC suburbs of Montgomery County in Maryland and Fairfax County in Virginia, told USA TODAY.
Trump invoked the provision for the first time Aug. 11, aiming to rid the city of what he called “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” He said the city was overrun with "violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals," despite a declining crime rate.
Trump had to notify the leaders of congressional committees overseeing DC in order for him to keep control of the police for 30 days. A longer extension would require authorization by lawmakers.
Trump told reporters on Aug. 13 that he would ask Congress for “long-term extensions” for him to remain in control of the DC police, which he expected to be approved “pretty much unanimously.” But he said he could call a national emergency if needed.
“We’re going to be essentially crime-free,” Trump said. “This is going to be a beacon.”
Trump declared the initial emergency despite DC reporting a 35% drop in violent crime from 2023 to 2024, and a 26% drop in crime so far in 2025. Kreis said “a lot of people would contest” the declaration of an emergency, but the challenge would be difficult to litigate.
“You almost by default have to defer to the president’s judgment on this, no matter who the president is,” Kreis said.
Taking away DC home rule would require change in federal law
Trump is unlikely to be able to take control of the entire DC government because that would require a change in federal law. The legislation could be blocked by a filibuster in the Senate, which requires 60 votes to overcome in a chamber with 53 of Trump’s fellow Republicans and 47 members of the Democratic caucus.
Trump threatened to expand the deployment of the National Guard to help fight crime in other states and cities. He specifically cited New York, Chicago and other cities as targets for more troops.
"We're not going to lose our cities over this. This will go further. We're starting very strongly with DC," Trump said.
"We're going to take back our capital," Trump added. "And then we'll look at other cities also."
But other cities and states aren’t part of the federal government, so experts say he could not directly take over their police or local governments.“The federal government does not have the authority to commandeer state and local officials against their will to do (its) bidding,” Kreis said. “He just fundamentally cannot do that as a federalism matter.”
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, called Trump’s takeover of the police force “unsettling and unprecedented” but didn’t challenge it in court.
“It's times like these when America needs to know that DC should be the 51st state,” Bowser said in a social media post on Aug. 12.
Trump leads DC National Guard as commander in chief
Trump didn’t need any additional authority on Aug. 11 to assign 800 National Guard troops to bolster crime fighting in DC because, as commander in chief, he oversees the Guard in the federal city.
Joseph Nunn, national security counsel at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said presidents can deploy the National Guard where they want, but the troops are prevented from directly participating in law enforcement, such as making arrests under a law called the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.
This is why California National Guard troops in Los Angeles were described as protecting federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and buildings rather than helping arrest undocumented immigrants.
“He can put those troops wherever he wants to put them, but they will be constrained by the Posse Comitatus Act,” Nunn told USA TODAY.
National Guard deployments have been routine
Before Trump’s latest directives, National Guard deployments were routine in DC and elsewhere for purposes other than law enforcement.
For example, after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, Congress gave Manger the authority to request reinforcements from the National Guard on his own as chief of Capitol police, as opposed to having requests come from a three-member board. Manger said he appreciated the extra staffing to protect the Capitol or help with traffic during protests, such as when he set up dozens of traffic posts to keep vehicles moving during a protest by truckers against COVID-19 mandates.
“The National Guard is terrific,” Manger said.
Local authorities also often coordinate with federal law enforcement, such as the FBI, to fight organized crime or the Drug Enforcement Administration to combat drug trafficking.
“There’s a symbiotic relationship between federal and local police across the country,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum think tank, told USA TODAY. “What happened in Washington is distinctly different from what happens in pretty much any city in the country.”
Wexler added that the National Guard has a role to play, but troops are traditionally used “sparingly.”
The military "will never be a replacement for local police,” Wexler said. “No police chief I know would ever put the National Guard in a position where they’re making an arrest or their dealing directly with a volatile crowd. They have to be used strategically.”
But Manger was uncertain how Trump would move homeless people out of the capital.
“I’m not aware of any other cities or towns around the country that are clamoring for homeless," Manger said. "Where is he going to put them?"
Richard Stengel, a former undersecretary of state during the Obama administration, warned against the use of the military to bolster law enforcement at a time when violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low.
“Throughout history, autocrats use a false pretext to impose government control over local law enforcement as a prelude to a more national takeover,” Stengel said in a social media post on Aug. 11. “That's far more dangerous than the situation he says he is fixing.”
Trump bolsters immigration enforcement with National Guard
The Pentagon announced on July 25 that 1,700 National Guard personnel – 1,200 already deployed plus 500 additional troops – from cooperating states with Republican governors will work on "case management, transportation and logistical support, and clerical support for the in- and out-processing" of ICE arrests. The troops were sent to more than a dozen cities.
The duties of some will also include taking DNA swabs, photographs and fingerprints of people held at ICE facilities, according to a defense official speaking on condition of anonymity.
California fights Trump's use of National Guard for law enforcement
A landmark federal trial began on Aug. 11 in San Francisco, challenging Trump’s deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to support deportations and quell immigration protests in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco will determine if the government violated the Posse Comitatus Act.
California sued the Trump administration by arguing the deployment violated federal law and state sovereignty. But a federal appeals court allowed Trump to retain control of California’s National Guard during the legal fight.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom seeks a ruling that would return its National Guard troops to state control and a declaration that Trump’s action was illegal.
What is the Insurrection Act?
One option for Trump to get around the prohibition on troops conducting law enforcement would be to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which aimed to suppress armed rebellion or insurrection.
Despite the harsh terms, presidents have invoked the law throughout the country’s history. Former President George H.W. Bush was the last to invoke the law in 1992, when he deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles in response to rioting after the acquittal of four white police officers charged with beating a Black motorist, Rodney King.
Trump threatened repeatedly after Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 to invoke the Insurrection Act but hasn’t done so recently.
Legal experts said any challenge to Trump invoking that law would turn on similar semantics, defining whether the emergency or rebellion justified taking over the DC police or deploying National Guard troops in other cities.
“I think it would be naïve to suggest that the president would not try or could not try to stretch the definitions of insurrection or rebellion beyond their common political usage to suit his political needs,” Kreis said. “The law might say one thing, but its ability to be stretched and molded into a political weapon for the president’s benefit is not really purely speculative.”
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How DC’s unique status let Trump take control of police, deploy National Guard
Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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