Bringing distinguished White Home help to the streets of Washington, DC, US Vice President JD Vance and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth have visited with National Guard troops on the metropolis’s essential prepare station.
“We introduced some regulation and order again,” the vp asserted as protesters chanted “free DC” throughout the newest tense interlude from President Donald Trump’s crackdown within the nation’s capital on Wednesday.
“We admire all the things you’re doing,” Vance stated as he introduced burgers to the troops. Citing the protesters whose shouts echoed by means of the station, Vance stated, “They seem to hate the concept People can get pleasure from their communities.”
Vance’s and Hegseth’s look, which additionally included White Home Deputy Chief of Workers Stephen Miller, was a placing scene that illustrated the Republican administration’s intense concentrate on the scenario in Washington and its willingness to advertise an initiative that has polarised the Democratic-led metropolis.
On August 8, federal regulation enforcement companies, together with the FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), started patrolling elements of Washington, DC. Days later, on August 11, President Trump declared a “crime emergency” beneath Part 740 of the District of Columbia Dwelling Rule Act, which quickly positioned the town’s Metropolitan Police beneath federal authority.
An estimated 1,900 troops are being deployed in DC. Greater than half are coming from Republican-led states. Apart from Union Station, they’ve largely been noticed round downtown areas, together with the Nationwide Mall and DC Metro stops.
Nationwide Guard armoured automobile crash
The intersection of life within the metropolis and a navy presence produced one other placing scene early on Wednesday when an armoured automobile collided with a civilian automobile lower than a mile (1.6km) from the US Capitol. One individual was trapped contained in the automobile after the accident and needed to be extricated by emergency responders, in accordance with DC Hearth Division spokesman Vito Maggiolo. The individual was transported to a hospital with minor accidents.
It was not instantly clear what brought on the crash. A video posted on-line confirmed the aftermath of the collision, with a tan-coloured armoured automobile twice the peak of a civilian automobile with a crushed facet.
“You come to our metropolis and that is what you do? Critically?” a girl yelled on the troops within the video.
US Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi stated greater than 550 folks have been arrested to this point, and the US Marshals Service is providing $500 rewards for info resulting in further arrests. “Collectively, we are going to make DC secure once more!” Bondi wrote on social media.
Navigating the scenario
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, making an attempt to steadiness the constituency that elected her and the fact in entrance of her, acknowledged the altering scenario within the metropolis as she attended a back-to-school occasion with lecturers and workers.
“This isn’t the identical time, is it, that we skilled in opening college final 12 months,” she stated. Bowser stated she would concentrate on the politics and informed college staff that “your job is to like on the children, train them and guarantee that they’re ready and to belief that I’m going to do the proper factor for all of us”.
Regardless of the militarised backdrop, Bowser stated it’s vital that kids “have pleasure after they method this college 12 months”. Public colleges round Washington reconvene Monday for the autumn semester.
Town’s Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) arrested a median of 61 adults and juveniles per day in 2024, in accordance with metropolis statistics. The Trump administration has not specified whether or not the arrest totals it has cited embrace these made by MPD officers or solely encompass these made by federal brokers.
DC crime charges have remained largely unchanged from a 12 months in the past, in accordance with the police division’s weekly statistics.
As of Tuesday, the town’s total crime charge is down 7 % 12 months over 12 months, the identical share as earlier than the crackdown. DC has additionally skilled the identical declines in violent crime and property crime because it did beforehand, in accordance with the information.
Trump has defended his resolution to deploy troopers within the US capital as essential to stem a wave of violent crime. Metropolis officers have rejected that assertion, pointing to federal and metropolis statistics that present violent crime has declined considerably since a spike in 2023.
The president has stated, with out offering proof, that the crime information is fraudulent. The US Division of Justice has opened an investigation into whether or not the numbers have been manipulated, the Washington Put up reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
Shotguns and rifles
The White Home has touted the variety of weapons that regulation enforcement has seized since Trump started surging federal brokers into the town. In a social media put up on Wednesday, US Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi stated the operation had taken 76 unlawful weapons off the streets, together with the greater than 500 arrests.
The Washington Put up reported on Tuesday that federal prosecutors in DC will not search expenses towards individuals who violate a neighborhood regulation prohibiting people from carrying rifles or shotguns within the nation’s capital.
66 arrests yesterday and eight unlawful firearms seized. One arrest was a warrant on a juvenile for armed theft in Washington DC.
Thanks to our K9, Purple, and all of the women and men who proceed to work arduous in order that People can really feel secure within the nation’s capital! pic.twitter.com/jpcWfTvRhp
— Lawyer Normal Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 20, 2025
In an announcement supplied to Reuters, US Lawyer for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro stated the brand new coverage won’t preclude prosecutors from charging folks with different unlawful firearms crimes, akin to a convicted felon present in possession of a gun.
“We’ll proceed to grab all unlawful and unlicensed firearms,” she stated.
The DC code in query bars anybody from carrying a rifle or shotgun with slim exceptions. Pirro, an in depth Trump ally, argued in an announcement to the Washington Put up that the regulation violates two US Supreme Court docket choices increasing gun rights.
In 2008, the courtroom struck down a separate DC regulation banning handguns and dominated that people have the proper to maintain firearms of their properties for self-defence. In 2022, the courtroom dominated that any gun-control regulation have to be rooted within the nation’s historic traditions to be legitimate.
Not like US attorneys in all 50 states, who solely prosecute federal offences, the US legal professional in Washington prosecutes native crimes as nicely.
