Trump threatens to “federalize” DC with the National Guard and more. Here’s how it could be played.

President Donald Trump Plague if it is necessary to deploy up to 1,000 troops of the National Guard in Washington, DC, this week, Fox News learned, in an effort to help manage what he described as overvoltage as violent crimes.

The plans are one day after Trump swore on Truth Social to expel the homeless from the capital of this nation. “The homeless must move, immediately,” said Trump on social networks. “We will give you places to stay, but far from the capital. Criminals, you don’t have to move. We are going to put yourself in prison where you belong.”

Trump’s plans, which should be more detailed at a press conference at 10 am on Monday, would likely involve members of the DC National Guard, or the National Guard of 2,700 members who act at the express authority of the Commander -in -Chief.

Unlike other branches, Trump would not have the sign of local authorities to act – probably making their activation a tempting option.

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President Donald Trump is seen in the White House Oval Office on Monday May 5, 2025 in Washington, DC (AP photo / Alex Brandon)

Addressing journalists from the Oval Office last week, Trump reprimanded against what he described as a “ridiculous” level of crime in the national capital, more recently shaken by the assault against a former DOGE staff earlier this month.

“We want to have great sure capital,” said Trump last week. “And we are going to have it.”

Trump also told journalists that his White House lawyers planned to end the House rule, a law adopted by the Congress in 1973 which gave residents of Washington, DC, the right to elect their own mayor and local representatives.

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told journalists last week that Trump had ordered the police of the police to increase his presence in the capital, although the additional details on the scope and the period of this presence remain vague.

Trump is expected to fight these plans at a press conference on Monday morning.

However, for Trump, the holding of this promise could be fraught with long -term legal complications – in part, because crime in the city has in fact been at its lowest point for almost 30 years.

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Birds are Silhouetted as they fly over the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the American Capitol at sunrise on the day of the ballot in Washington, DC, on November 8, 2016. (Reuters / Kevin Lamarque)

Violent crimes in the first seven months of 2025 fell by approximately 26% compared to 2024, according to to data Compiled by the DC police service and released earlier this month. Overall, crime in the national capital has dropped by around 7%.

On Sunday, the deputy chief of staff of the White House, Stephen Miller, said in an interview with Newsnation that Washington, DC, “was more violent than Baghdad”.

Washington, DC, mayor Muriel Bowser, for his part, told MSNBC in an interview on Sunday that “any comparison with a country torn by war is hyperbolic and false”.

However, this is not the first time that Trump has been trying to repress crime in the country’s Capitol – an effort to which he returned frequently, including during his first mandate.

On Tuesday, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting continued President Donald Trump to prevent the termination of three members of the board of directors. (Reuters / Leah Millis)

In March, Trump signed an executive decree, “making DC Sa-Taste Task Force”, designed to solve the problems with a city that he has long turned into “dirty”, “horribly” and “crime” patterns, among others. “We want to have a big safe capital,” he told journalists. “And we are going to have it. And that includes cleanliness and that includes other things.”

However, these powers are not indefinite, explained experts at Fox News Digital.

Trump has the power to activate the DC National Guard of 2,700 members without the approval of local officials. Garden troops provide “staff and units ready for the mission for armed services” in Washington, DC, according to their website.

Beyond that, Trump’s ability to exercise authority in the national capital is bound by Home Rule Act.

During the over 50s who followed this law, “there was really no serious conversation at the end of the governance of house rules,” Fox News George Derek Musgrove, history professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, told Fox News.

“And the problem with our federal system is that there are places where Trump really has no supporters, and therefore, with the limits of executive power, really does not have much swing,” said Musgrove. “And he is constantly being for means of getting around this.”

Other options available for Trump are not without their own limits. In order to call local police forces for a significant period, as Trump suggested, a president must be able to affirm “special conditions of an emergency”, according to the law of the 1970s.

“If DC does not come together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take federal control,” said Trump last week.

However, it is easier to say than to do, people familiar with the law told Fox News Digital.

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“DC is just a tempting target because there is not even a lot of legal gymnastics that you have to do to exercise enormous power (in a city with) a 90%democratic jurisdiction. He already has it,” said Musgrove.

“But he is morally questionable, I think, and violates democratic principles,” he added.