DC protests President Trump’s criminal crackdown and military deployment
Protesters in Washington, DC oppose President Donald Trump’s criminal crackdown and military deployment.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondy named Drug Enforcement Director Terry Cole on August 14 as “Emergency Police Chief” for the Washington State Police Department.
“Committee Cole shall assume all powers and duties granted to the District of Columbia Police Chief,” Bondy’s order said, adding that Cole has the authority to issue orders applicable to MPD members. The existing leadership of the MPD, including the current police chief and director, “must receive approval from Chief Call before issuing any further directives to the MPD,” the Bondi order said.
President Donald Trump said he deployed hundreds of National Guard in Washington earlier this week and temporarily took over the city’s police department, suppressing what he portrayed as a criminal emergency in the US capital, but statistics show a decline in cases of violent crime.
Republican Trump said on August 13 that he will crack down on crime in pursuit of long-term federal control of Washington police, and will engage in an escalating campaign to exert the president’s power over the nation’s capital, a Democratic base.
Washington mayor and Democrat Muriel Bowser has pushed back Trump’s claim that crime is on the rise. Both federal and city crime statistics show that violent crime in Washington has been declining sharply since its peak in 2023.
Trump called the statistics “fraud.”
Trump has previously threatened to expand his efforts to other democratically run cities such as Chicago, but he also claims he has failed to deal with the crime. Trump’s extraordinary move in Washington reflects how he approached his second term in the office, shattering legal concerns to test the limits of power in his office.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh of Washington, Editing by Kate Mayberry)
