WASHINGTON — More than 800 National Guard troops are being deployed to Washington, D.C., after President Donald Trump signed an emergency order to address the city’s crime rates — but some lawmakers such as Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, want the president to go even further.
Trump announced plans on Monday to federalize the D.C. police department, invoking a rarely used statute that allows the president to take control of the city’s law enforcement on a temporary basis. The order would expire in 30 days unless explicitly extended by Congress.
Republicans praised Trump’s decision, citing personal stories of juvenile crime and other attacks — claiming the executive order was needed to restore peace in the city. The order also marks the strongest action yet following through with Trump’s desires to take control of the nation’s capital and repeal its self-governance laws.
Lee has used the recent order to revive calls for the passage of his BOWSER Act, a bill to overturn local control over Washington, D.C., and place it under federal jurisdiction. The bill, named after Mayor Muriel Bowser, would revoke what is known as the D.C. Home Rule Act, which allows the city to operate as a self-governing entity.
“We have no other choice,” Lee wrote in an op-ed for The Spectator. “The district’s government has proven unable and unwilling to meet even the basic obligations of governance. It’s gotten to the point where Washington is no longer merely a local embarrassment. To allow it to remain a showcase of crime, corruption and incompetence is an act of national self-harm.”
The latest threats highlight an ongoing challenge for D.C. officials, who have been working for months to crack down on rising rates of youth crime. Since the beginning of 2025, juveniles have made up more than 50% of arrests related to carjacking, according to D.C. police. A majority of those arrests are made up of teens who are 15 and 16 years old.
Bowser has acknowledged the recent trends, even going so far as to create a special police unit in April tasked with responding to juvenile crime. Curfew zones for the city’s juveniles have also been put in place this week.
Lee pushes for more action to dismantle D.C. autonomy
While Trump has threatened for months to take control of D.C. entirely, his latest order does not quite meet that level. Instead, Lee is now pressing for a vote on his legislation that would place the district completely under congressional jurisdiction — and has even suggested returning some of D.C.’s land back to Maryland, preserving only a narrow strip of the city containing the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court to be its own entity.
“This small federal enclave would remain under congressional control—allowing the centers of power in Washington to remain under exclusively federal control — while the rest of DC’s residents would gain full voting rights and representation as Marylanders,” Lee said in a post on X. “This solution would give DC residents what they deserve — state-level representation — without upending the Constitution or creating an anomalous micro-state. This approach would be practical, historical, and fair.”
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who leads the BOWSER Act in the House, has similarly pushed for the bill’s passage, telling the Deseret News he texted Trump last week about the legislation. Ogles said he also contacted House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to remind him of his legislation, noting a vote on the matter “needs to happen.”
It’s not clear whether Trump will pursue legislative action to take control of the capital city. When asked if the president plans to work with Congress, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he is “very much still interested” in addressing issues such as cashless bail and other public safety policies in D.C.
“Juvenile delinquency is another major problem in the city that Congress can address,” Leavitt said. “I know Congress is on recess right now. When they get back to work in Washington, the president looks forward to having these conversations with our friends on Capitol Hill, so we can work with them to make D.C. safe and beautiful again.”
Trump’s troop deployment underscores new strategy that ‘will go further’
In the meantime, Trump has made clear he plans to utilize military action if needed to crack down on crime and homelessness in Washington, D.C., announcing this week that his administration would begin removing homeless people from their encampments across the city and taking them elsewhere.
Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that those who are removed from the encampments would be given the choice to be placed in a homeless shelter or other facilities — or else the individuals will face fines and possibly jail time if they do not remove themselves from the streets. Trump initially threatened in a post on Truth Social to move homeless people “FAR from the Capital.”
When pressed on what that means, Leavitt said it’s an option the administration is still exploring.
Trump also suggested D.C. is just the beginning of his efforts to crack down on crime in major cities, telling reporters on Monday that “we’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick.”
“We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad,” Trump said. “New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. … They’re so far gone. We’re not going to let it happen. We’re not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further.”
The deployment in D.C. comes after Trump similarly sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this year to quell protests against his administration’s immigration policies. The new strategy marks a shift from his predecessors by using military deployments within U.S. borders.