WASHINGTON — A vast majority of the residential population in Washington, D.C., oppose President Donald Trump’s takeover of local law enforcement even as the president continues to send hundreds of National Guard troops to the 68-square-mile district.
Almost 80% of residents say they oppose the takeover, including 69% who say they “strongly” oppose and 10% who only “somewhat” oppose, according to a new survey conducted by The Washington Post. That’s far above the 17% who say they either “strongly” or “somewhat” approve assuming control of local police.
Another 4% said they have no opinion.
Trump announced last week he would send at least 800 National Guard soldiers to the nation’s capital to crack down on what he described as “out of control” crime, particularly attacks committed by teenagers. 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.
Still, crime rates in the city overall have gone down over the last year, according to statistics from the Metropolitan Police Department. Violent crime, for example, has decreased by 26% compared to this time last year.
However, Trump has accused the city of falsifying its data to make it appear as if crime is going down. The Department of Justice even went so far as to open an investigation into the Metropolitan Police Department this week, claiming actual crime is far worse than what the numbers show.
Meanwhile, only 31% of D.C. residents say crime is “extremely” or “very” serious, according to The Washington Post poll. Another 41% said it was “moderately” serious.
More than a quarter (28%) said they found crime to be “not too” or “not at all” serious, the poll shows.
“A federalized takeover of any aspect of a city’s operations will naturally create a backlash, and that is clearly happening here,” Mark Rozell, dean of George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, which co-sponsored the poll, said in a statement. “Residents are saying it is not as bad as the president claims, and they want to reclaim the image of their city against a presidential narrative that is tarnishing D.C.’s reputation.”
At least six Republican-led states have sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., over the last week, including West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. Members of the D.C. National Guard have also been placed throughout the city.
The soldiers’ presence has prompted anger and protests from residents in targeted neighborhoods, with some even being arrested for interfering with law enforcement’s arrests.
Trump took federal control of the city by invoking a rarely used statute that allows the president to oversee the city’s law enforcement on a temporary basis. The order would expire in 30 days unless explicitly extended by Congress.
That’s unlikely to happen as it would require Democratic support in the Senate. As a result, Trump suggested he might look at other ways to extend federal presence in the capital without congressional approval.
The Washington Post poll surveyed 604 residents in Washington between Aug. 14-17 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.