Since August 2025, Washington has hosted sustained National Guard and federal law enforcement deployments ordered by President Donald Trump, highlighting the District’s unusual legal status and reigniting debates over home rule and statehood.
Washington, D.C., has become the center of a national fight over presidential power, public safety, and local autonomy. In August, President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency and sent the D.C. National Guard and Guard units from several states into the city, while federal agencies including ICE intensified enforcement operations. The Associated Press and the Washington Post report the Guard mission, initiated Aug. 11, has been extended through Feb. 28, 2026, with roughly 2,000–2,400 troops rotating through assignments across federal land and transit hubs; officials say many tasks have included visible patrols and cleanup work while court challenges proceed.
Large protests followed. On Sept. 6, thousands marched under the banner “We Are All D.C.” to oppose what organizers and city leaders described as an unnecessary federal occupation and a blow to home rule, according to the Washington Post. The deployments came as ICE stepped up enforcement: agency statements and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington said a May operation led to 189 arrests and nearly 200 worksite inspections, and immigrant advocacy groups warned of intensified workplace and neighborhood sweeps in August.
The strategy has extended beyond the capital. In June, following anti-ICE demonstrations, the administration deployed thousands of National Guard troops and several hundred Marines to Los Angeles, a move that drew legal challenges from California officials and was partially rolled back later in the summer, according to AP, Reuters, and the California governor’s office. In September, Trump announced a National Guard deployment to Memphis as part of a multi-agency crime task force, the AP reported. Attempts to send troops to Portland that month were blocked by a federal judge, Oregon officials said. In the Chicago area in October, Illinois officials challenged planned Guard deployments; while local outlets reported Guard contingents staging to protect federal facilities, federal courts issued temporary blocks on wider operations, according to AP, Reuters, and NBC Chicago.
Trump has signaled he could pursue similar actions in other Democratic-led cities, including New Orleans, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, and St. Louis. “We want to save these places,” he said on Sept. 15 while announcing the Memphis task force, according to NPR and AP coverage.
The District’s vulnerability to federal control is rooted in its structure. Congress created a federal district rather than a state, and although the 1973 Home Rule Act established an elected mayor and council, Congress retains the power to block D.C. laws and controls key aspects of its budget. Unlike states, D.C.’s National Guard answers to the president, not the mayor—a longstanding arrangement legal scholars and civil rights groups have urged Congress to change. Congress has recently exercised its oversight by disapproving local measures, including a 2023 criminal code overhaul.
Statehood efforts have persisted. In a 2016 referendum, 86% of voters supported statehood; the House passed a statehood bill in 2021, but it stalled in the Senate after Sen. Joe Manchin said he opposed the measure without a constitutional amendment, as reported by CNBC and the Washington Post. In February 2025, Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Andy Ogles introduced the BOWSER Act to repeal the Home Rule Act one year after passage; in announcing the bill, Ogles said Mayor Muriel Bowser’s “radically progressive regime…has left our nation’s Capital in crime-ridden shambles,” according to a press release from Lee’s office.
Economically, the federal deployments coincide with sweeping federal workforce reductions and aid cuts that disproportionately affect the region. The Washington Post and AP report extensive reductions at USAID—officials have said roughly 83% of its programs were terminated or moved—alongside significant IRS layoffs and broader federal downsizing. D.C.’s chief financial officer projected a revenue hit exceeding $1 billion over several years, tied in part to an anticipated loss of about one-fifth of federal jobs located in the city, with knock-on effects for contractors, retail, and hospitality.
Politically, Washington remains one of the nation’s bluest jurisdictions. In the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris won more than 90% of the District’s vote, according to certified results reported by the Washington Post and other outlets. That lopsided support, coupled with the city’s lack of full self-governance, has made D.C. a focal point in a broader national clash over urban policy, immigration enforcement, and the scope of presidential authority.
What happens next will likely be decided in court and in Congress. D.C.’s attorney general has sued to end the Guard deployment, arguing it exceeds executive authority, while Democratic lawmakers have introduced measures to unwind aspects of the federal takeover of local policing and to expand local control over the D.C. National Guard. As those challenges proceed, the deployments in the capital remain a test case for how far a president can go in sending federal forces into American cities—and how much say the residents of the nation’s capital have over their own streets.