Donald Trump is preparing to deploy of as many as 1,000 National Guard troops to flood the streets of Washington DC as federal agents began making arrests on Sunday night.
Trump was expected to announce the deployment during a White House press conference Monday amid a crackdown on crime as he continues to push for a federal takeover of the city.
‘Be prepared! There will be no “MR. NICE GUY.” We want our Capital BACK,’ Trump warned on Truth Social.
Photos taken late Sunday night showed several federal authorities working in coordination with one another including the FBI and Border Patrol.
In one instance, a man was detained by police along U Street in the capital as FBI and Border Patrol agents assisted.
A short distance away Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents could also be seen standing guard in Dupont Circle.
It came as Trump deployed 120 FBI agents to work alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital working the night shift
The National Guard mobilization was expected to be announced Monday, as US officials told NBC4 Washington that Trump was considering deploying 1,000 troops.
The White House declined to confirm details but signaled Trump is prepared to act.
FBI and Border Patrol officers were seen arresting a man along the U Street corridor late on Sunday night in Washington D.C.
The man, dressed in a pink shirt and grey shorts, was placed in cuffs while at least nine agents from various agencies could be seen standing around
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents stand guard in Dupont Circle as part of a federal law enforcement deployment to the nation’s capital on Sunday night in Washington, DC.
‘We won’t get ahead of the President on any potential announcements,’ one official told NBC News, ‘but the President has been clear that all options are on the table when it comes to making D.C. safe again.’
Trump has been suggesting he would introduce a crackdown in the city for days, using his Truth Social platform to promise a major announcement on Monday about his anti-crime plan for the capital.
‘It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World,’ Trump wrote on Sunday. ‘It will soon be one of the safest!!!’
The president has likened his plans for D.C. as similar to his administration’s aggressive crackdown against illegal immigration at the southern border.
‘I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before,’ he said while pledging to ‘immediately clear out the city’s homeless population and take swift action against crime.’
‘It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border,’ Trump posted.
‘We’re going to have to federalize D.C. and run it the way it’s supposed to be run,’ Trump declared on Tuesday night on Truth Social.
Speaking to reporters the following day he added, ‘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.’
Violent crime is down 26% compared with this time in 2024, according to DC police data.
If Trump signs the order, it would mark one of the largest peacetime Guard deployments in the capital in recent memory.
A man is seen interacting with Border Patrol and FBI agents along U Street before he was later arrested
More that a dozen agents, mainly from the FBI could be seen on Sunday night during the arrest
Trump has deployed 120 FBI agents to work alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital working the night shift
Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities and on Sunday night the FBI, police and Border Patrol were all working together
President Donald Trump pledged on Sunday to evict homeless people from the nation’s capital and jail criminals, despite Washington’s mayor arguing there is no current spike in crime
Trump’s Truth Social post also included pictures of tents and D.C. streets with garbage on them
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called the city’s violent crime rate the lowest in 30 years and said Trump is ‘very aware’ of the capital’s progress after a recent Oval Office meeting
But during a Sunday interview, the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, insisted the capital was ‘not experiencing a crime spike.’
‘It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023,’ Bowser said on MSNBC’s The Weekend.
Bowser said she believed the president was exaggerating the need for troops to be deployed onto city streets – mainly because the District is not experiencing the crime spike Trump suggests.
She explained how she spoke to Trump a few weeks ago in the Oval Office of the White House during which time the pair discussed crime in the capital.
‘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 suggested she had already anticipated Trump’s next move.
The deployment of 120 FBI agents working the night shift started on Sunday as they flooded the streets of the capital
FBI agents walk along the U Street corridor as part of a federal law enforcement deployment on Sunday night
FBI and Border Patrol officers are seen walking the streets in the nation’s capital on August 10
On Sunday night Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents were standing guard in Dupont Circle. President Donald Trump ordered an increased presence of federal law enforcement to Washington, DC in an effort to curb crime
Trump has already demonstrated he is not averse to deploy the National Guard should the need arise. Pictured, members of the California National Guard are seen in downtown LA in June
Last week, resident Trump posted a photo of a man who was allegedly beat up by several people in Washington, DC
‘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’, Bowser 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.
Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon.
Earlier on Sunday, aside from the crime, Trump blasted the homelessness that blights the streets of DC and has ensured 120 FBI agents will now to work alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital – for at least the next week.
‘The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,’ Trump posted on Truth Social. ‘The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.’
Two U.S. officials said a final decision was still to be made by Trump but the troops were prepared to deploy.
Trump posted photos from the motorcade including some of roadside tents used by homeless
Trump claims crime has run rampant on the streets of Washington D.C.
The assignment to place the FBI on patrol is a very different task from their usual roles at the bureau of counterintelligence, public corruption and other divisions.
Indeed, the majority of agents do not have training on how to deal with traffic stops on the streets and other potentially dangerous encounters.
Agents will also come in from outside Washington including Philadelphia to help with the boost in staffing.
The Trump administration has not asked the D.C. police department on how the FBI agents should be deployed, reports The Washington Post.
As part of his capital cleanup, Trump went on to post online how he plans to evict homeless people from the nation’s capital and jail criminals, despite Washington’s mayor arguing there is no current spike in crime.
The White House declined to explain what legal authority Trump would use to evict people from Washington.
The Republican president controls only federal land and buildings in the city.
Trump is planning to hold a press conference on Monday to ‘stop violent crime in Washington, D.C.’
Other photos taken around the area sees garbage strewn along the side of busy highways
The pictures looked to have been taken out of the window from Trump’s motorcade
One photo sees a homeless person lying on the steps outside one of the capital’s municipal buildings
Trump posted a lengthy and rambling tweet suggesting how he would improve the capital
It was not clear whether he would announce more details about his eviction plan then.
Trump’s Truth Social post included pictures of tents and D.C. streets with some garbage on them.
According to the Community Partnership, an organization working to reduce homelessness in D.C., on any given night there are 3,782 single persons experiencing homelessness in the city of about 700,000 people.
Most of the homeless individuals are in emergency shelters or transitional housing. About 800 are considered unsheltered or ‘on the street,’ the organization says.
A White House official said on Friday that more federal law enforcement officers were being deployed in the city following a violent attack on Trump staffer Edward Coristine aka ‘Big Balls’ that angered the president.
‘Agents from the FBI Washington Field Office continue to participate in the increased federal law enforcement presence in D.C., which includes assisting our law enforcement partners,’ the FBI said in a statement Sunday morning.
FBI agents have begun to flood the streets of the capital as part of the Trump administration’s latest move to impose its will on the nation’s capital
A person asks for help along the Rock Creek Parkway last month in Washington, DC
A person sleeps on a bench on July 25 in Washington, DC. President Trump signed an executive order making it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the street
A woman braids her hair at a busy intersection in Washington, DC last month. Trump’s executive order makes it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the streets and move them to treatment centers
An unhoused person looks though their belongings in Freedom Plaza last month
A person asks for help in Washington, DC
Donald Trump is weighing the deployment of as many as 1,000 National Guard troops to flood the streets of Washington DC as the president threatens a federal takeover of the capital as part of a response to violent crime. Pictured, the National Guard stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in June 2020 following the death of George Floyd
‘We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.’
The city’s police department reports that violent crime in the first seven months of 2025 was down by 26% in D.C. compared with last year while overall crime was down about 7%.
Bowser said Trump is ‘very aware’ of the city’s work with federal law enforcement after meeting with Trump several weeks ago in the Oval Office.
The U.S. Congress has control of D.C.’s budget after the district was established in 1790 with land from neighboring Virginia and Maryland, but resident voters elect a mayor and city council.
For Trump to take over the city, Congress likely would have to pass a law revoking the law that established local elected leadership, which Trump would have to sign.
On Sunday, Bowser noted the president’s ability to call up the National Guard if he wanted, a tactic the administration used recently in Los Angeles after immigration protests over the objections of local officials.
