President Donald Trump is considering deploying up to 1,000 National Guard troops to D.C. and could make the announcement as early as Monday, one defense official and two U.S. officials confirmed on Sunday night.
The number of Guard who would be assigned is still in flux, the officials say, and most of the troops would likely be pulled from the D.C. National Guard.
The officials clarified that the decision is not final and no orders have been signed.
A White House official also told NBC News “we won’t get ahead of the President on any potential announcements, but the President has been clear that all options are on the table when it comes to making D.C. safe again.”
The announcement comes a day after Trump posted on Truth Social that the White House will make an announcement Monday about the plan to combat crime in D.C.
“It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World. It will soon be one of the safest!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” the post reads.
Trump threatened last week to take federal control of Washington, D.C., after a former Department of Government Efficiency employee was attacked during an attempted carjacking. The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed the victim was Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls.”
“We’re going to have to federalize D.C. and run it the way it’s supposed to be run,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday night.
“The rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings and everything else, we’re not going to let it, and that includes bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly, too,” Trump told a member of the White House pool on Wednesday.
However, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in an interview with MSNBC on Sunday that the District is not experiencing a crime spike.
The mayor said on “The Weekend” that she spoke to Trump a few weeks ago in the White House’s Oval Office and several times about crime, including the first meeting she had with him when he was elected for his second term.
“The President is very aware of our efforts,” Bowser said. “He established a task force, which our police department and agencies support with information and anything else they ask us for…it is always the President’s prerogative to use federal law enforcement or the National Guard.”
Bowser also anticipated what she believes the White House will announce on Monday.
“It is clear that the President, and I suspect that his announcement is that he is surging federal law enforcement, which he’s talked about, and he may talk about even larger numbers or longer periods of time he’s interested in being in neighborhoods and fighting crime in neighborhoods, and to the extent that officers know our laws”, she said.
“That officers work in community and work with prosecutors to build good cases and establish a presence and work with local officials who are you know, the expert is in policing and making arrests. That’s what we’re waiting to see”, the mayor added.
To federalize Washington, D.C., Congress would need to repeal the Home Rule Act of 1973. Nevertheless, the president can unilaterally take control of the D.C. police and activate the National Guard.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for updates.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
