United States President Donald Trump has announced that he is placing the nation’s capital under direct federal control and will be sending in the US National Guard.

At a press conference on Monday, Trump announced it was “liberation day” in DC, claiming a crime spree that is not supported by evidence.

“I’m officially invoking Section 740, of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. You know what that is, and placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control,” he said.

“I’m deploying the National Guard to help re-establish law, order and public safety in Washington, DC. They’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.”

Trump said 800 National Guard troops will be deployed and that the government “will bring in the military if needed”.

Critics have said the plan would trample on the rights of residents in a city where advocates have for decades pushed for more autonomy, including statehood.

Trump said that under the newly declared “public safety emergency”, US Attorney General Pam Bondi is taking control of Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department.

While Washington, DC has for years grappled with high crime rates, violent crime has been on the decline since 2023.

The city’s crime rates in 2024 were already their lowest in three decades, according to figures produced by the Department of Justice before Trump took office.

The news conference on Monday comes after Trump surged federal law enforcement across the city last week, deploying agents from several federal agencies to work alongside the local Metropolitan Police Department.

Trump deployed the National Guard and the Marine Corps to respond to immigrant-rights protests in Los Angeles in June. Trump also deployed the National Guard to Washington, DC to respond to Black Lives Matter protests during his first term.

The mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, has questioned the effectiveness of deploying the National Guard to enforce local laws, saying that more funding for prosecutors would make a more meaningful difference.

Bowser has also criticised Trump’s portrayal of the capital as “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world”.

“Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false,” she said in an interview with MSNBC on Friday.

Trump has also taken aim at the homeless population in Washington, DC, saying that they must be cleared immediately. He offered no further information on where they would go.