Trump Acts with Legal, Moral Authority on DC’s ‘Liberation Day’
This past week President Trump exercised his authority to deploy the National Guard, federalize the D.C. police department, and take control of the City’s streets.
He did so vowing to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor—and worse.” He’s also calling up 800 troops from the D.C. National Guard to begin to return order. “Crime is out of control,” states Trump’s emergency declaration. “The city government’s failure to maintain public order and safety has had a dire impact on the Federal Government’s ability to operate efficiently to address the Nation’s broader interests.”
To do this, President Trump invoked the Home Rule Act which allows him to federalize the police in certain circumstances. This first installment is expected to last 30 days. AG Pam Bondi has been tasked with overseeing the City’s police department.
Knowing Trump’s personality, I think it likely that the tipping point for his deciding to take this step was the recent brutal beating of one of Elon Musk’s former DOGE staffers, Edward Coristine, who was viciously attacked while trying to defend a young woman on a D.C. street.
The Wall Street Journal has observed that “on the whole, local control of D.C. looks like a failure. The city has enshrined noncitizen voting in local elections and “sanctuary” policies to thwart federal immigration enforcement. Why should the President and Congress stand for this in America’s seat of government?” (WSJ, Aug. 11, 2025).
Even former President Biden signed a Congressional resolution in 2023, “amid that year’s murder surge, to overturn the D.C. City Council’s revisions to its criminal code, which included a reduction in the maximum penalties for carjacking and illegal gun possession. The vote in Congress included dozens of Democratic ayes. One was Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig, who had been assaulted in an elevator at her D.C. apartment building. Another was Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, who later that year was carjacked at gunpoint.” (Id. WSJ, Aug. 11, 2025). Naturally, though, now that President Trump is the one addressing the crime and dysfunction in D.C., the same individuals will likely oppose it.
In fact, national Democrats bizarrely assert “crime is down.” My response is, down from what? Is crime down in DC because last year there were only 200 murders instead of 250 murders? How many murders are acceptable? If D.C. were a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the United States. (The Heritage Foundation).
Which brings me to the tragic, maddening story of Nasrat Ahmad Yar who, according to CBC, ‘survived a lifetime of war, more than a decade of work as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, a Taliban takeover, and a perilous journey to America — only to be shot and killed while driving for ride-hailing service Lyft in Washington, D.C.’
This issue is personal to me.
I worked in D.C for nearly 8 years serving two different members of Congress from Louisiana. During that time, the threat of crime hung continuously like a dark cloud in the air, impacting the quality of life in our nation’s capital. I would come and go from the Capitol building and travel to different parts of the city many times. I would often hear from colleagues and local news of violent crime occurring and was always anxious about that. Crime and dysfunction in D.C. were my lived experience.
(As an aside, I note that period of time in my life also finished making concrete my views in strong support of gun rights and gun ownership. D.C. strictly prohibits firearms and as I walked or drove its streets, I, many times, thought to myself “if I’m attacked, I have no way to defend myself and the cops will never get here in time. Great. Only the criminals have guns!”)
I close with a prediction.
Trump will be successful in this. Crime, the homeless problem, ugly graffiti, and D.C.’s status as a “sanctuary” city for illegals are going to be reduced or eliminated. Thereafter, the rest of the country is going to notice these improvements and Americans across the country are going to wonder why, in their crime-ridden cities like Chicago, NYC and LA, the same thing is not accomplished by their Leftist, soft-on-crime, Democrat leaders.
Americans deserve a capital city—our Nation’s front door—that is safe, clean and reflects well on the USA to the world. We are having that returned to us.
