President Donald Trump’s law-enforcement crackdown on Washington expanded Wednesday and top administration officials visited National Guard troops to support a deployment that has left parts of the U.S. capital looking like occupied territory. Anger and frustration dotted the city as the vice president lauded an operation that he asserted has “brought some law and order back.”
The tense situation, which began more than a week ago when Trump took control of the local police department, appeared primed for escalating confrontations between residents who say they feel under siege and federal forces carrying out the president's vision of militarized law enforcement in Democratic cities. Other residents have said they welcome the federal efforts as a way to cut crime and bolster safety.
As Trump ratcheted up the pressure, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared burgers with soldiers at the city’s main railroad hub as demonstrators gathered nearby. The appearance, a striking scene that also included White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, illustrated the Republican administration’s intense dedication to an initiative that has polarized the Democratic-led city.
“You guys are doing a hell of a job,” Vance told the troops assembled in the Union Station Shake Shack. While protest chants echoed through the restaurant, he rejected polling that shows city residents don’t support the National Guard deployment as a solution to crime.
Someone booed Vance loudly and repeatedly as he left. The vice president grinned and said, “This is the guy who thinks people don’t deserve law and order in their own community.”
Trump has already suggested replicating his approach to D.C. in other cities, such as Chicago and Baltimore. He previously deployed the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles in response to immigration protests.
Swaths of the city are on edge
In the seven months since Trump took office for the second time, the traditionally liberal city of Washington has buckled under his more aggressive presidency. Thousands of federal employees have been laid off, landmark institutions like the Smithsonian are being overhauled on grounds of doctrine, and local leaders have been increasingly wary of angering the commander-in-chief.
Now parts of the city are bristling with resentment over Trump's approach. Spectators chanted “ free D.C. ” at a soccer game. Residents share sightings of immigration agents to help migrants steer clear. In the Columbia Heights neighborhood, crowds jeered federal officers and flipped middle fingers as they drove away. On some nights, people bang pots and pans outside their front doors in a cacophonous display of defiance.
Less than a mile from the U.S. Capitol, an armored National Guard vehicle collided with a civilian car in the early morning Wednesday, trapping the driver inside until emergency crews arrived. The massive military transport, designed to withstand improvised explosive devices in war zones, towered over the crushed silver sport utility vehicle. Bystanders gathered.
“You come to our city and this is what you do? Seriously?” a woman yelled at the troops in a video posted online.
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More troops have been arriving in the city, many from six Republican-led states. An estimated 1,900 are being deployed in total, with most posted in downtown areas like the National Mall, metro stations and near the park where baseball's Washington Nationals play.
In addition, federal officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies have circulated through D.C. to make arrests.
And a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said 20 members of the military's Judge Advocate General Corps would begin helping prosecute cases.
Col. Larry Doane, the commander of the joint task force in the D.C. National Guard, said they're trying to provide “an extra set of eyes and ears” for police and “helping them maintain control of the situation.”
“This is our community, too,” Doane said.
That's not how D.C. native LaVerne Smalls, 46, feels. “It’s very different. It’s very quiet," she said. "And I don’t like it. It should be full of life.”
Smalls knows D.C. has struggled with crime, but she didn't used to feel worried walking around. “I feel even more threatened," she said. “And I think that’s how they want us to feel.”
RELATED STORY | DC residents protest surge in federal police deployment near checkpoints
The actions from law enforcement have occasionally veered beyond safety and crime reduction and into regulating expression. Over the weekend, masked agents took down a profane protest banner in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood — to the apparent delight of the administration, which posted a video of the incident online. “We're taking America back, baby,” one of the agents said in the video.
Corey Frayer, 42, who lives nearby, said “that sends a message.”
“Mount Pleasant has always been a very activist, outspoken neighborhood,” he said. “And I think they think if they can show up here and scare us, then they’ll have done their job.”
Arrests are increasing as local officials navigate the situation
The White House said more than 550 people have been arrested so far, and the U.S. Marshals are offering $500 rewards for information leading to additional arrests. “Together, we will make DC safe again!” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media. City statistics show crime was already declining before Trump's intervention, despite his claims of a crisis necessitating the federal takeover of the D.C. police department.
The number of people arrested each day in Washington has increased by about 20% since the government began sending in a surge of federal agents, according to law enforcement data.
On average, there were 78 people booked in the city jail in the first 10 days, compared with 64 in the 10 days before that. Those numbers don’t include immigration arrests, though they do include arrests by both local police and federal officers, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss data that has not been publicly released.
Policing experts say it’s tough to draw firm conclusions over such a short period of time, especially since increases in police presence can relocate crime instead of preventing it.
Extending federal control of the city police department would require congressional approval, but Vance suggested the decision ultimately rests with Trump. “If the president of the United States thinks that he has to extend this order to ensure that people have access to public safety, that’s exactly what he’ll do," he said.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged the militarized backdrop in the city as she attended a back-to-school event with teachers and staff. She said it's important that children “have joy when they approach this school year," which starts Monday.
Bowser has been measured but directly critical of the federal operation, saying officers should not be wearing masks and arguing that the National Guard should not be used for law enforcement. “I don’t think you should have an armed militia in the nation’s capital,” she said.
Meanwhile, the skewer-everyone cartoon television show “ South Park,” which has leaned into near-real-time satire in recent years, this week made the federal crackdown fodder for a new episode. Last month, the show's 27th-season premiere mocked the president's body in a raunchy manner and depicted him sharing a bed with Satan.
