AUGUST 12, 2025 – President Donald J. Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital yesterday and vowed to make its streets safe again for both residents and visitors.
“Washington, D.C., should be one of the safest, cleanest and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world, and we’re going to make it that,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House. “We’re going to make it safe; we’re going to make it smart; we’re going to make it beautiful.”
The National Guard will play a role in that effort, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after the president issued a memorandum to mobilize the D.C. National Guard.
Hegseth said the mobilization will be operationalized by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, and guard members will be deployed in the streets of Washington in the coming week.
Approximately 800 soldiers were activated today as part of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, with about 100-200 of them supporting law enforcement. Duties for those personnel include administrative and logistical roles, as well as providing a physical presence in support of law enforcement.
Hegseth also stated that, beyond the D.C. National Guard, other guard units are ready to participate.
“There are other units we are prepared to bring in; other National Guard units, other specialized units,” Hegseth said. “They will be strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners.”
In recent months, the secretary said the National Guard has played similar roles, both at the border, where troops have worked alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to put a stop to illegal border crossings, and in Los Angeles, where they helped protect ICE and CBP agents from criminal attacks.
Now, the D.C. National Guard will contribute by helping to stop violence on city streets in the nation’s capital.
“We will work alongside all D.C. police and federal law enforcement to ensure this city is safe [and] this city is beautiful,” Hegseth said, adding, “As I always say about President Trump to the troops, ‘He has their back.’ And my message to the National Guard and federal law enforcement in Washington is, ‘We have your back as well. Be tough. Be strong. We’re right behind you.'”
According to a White House fact sheet, two embassy staffers were murdered in Washington this May. A congressional intern was shot and killed near the White House in June, and on Aug. 3, 2025, a federal employee was beaten by a mob.
A White House executive order reports that the 2024 murder rate in the District of Columbia was 27.54 per 100,000 residents, and the vehicle theft rate was at 842.4 thefts per 100,000 residents.
“It’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness in Washington,” the president said. “Caravans of … youth rampage through city streets at all times of the day. They’re on ATVs, motorbikes — they travel pretty well. Entire neighborhoods are now under emergency curfews.”
Trump said that it will soon change.
“We have people that love this country, and they love this … really beautiful capital,” he said. “I flew over it the other day and I said, ‘What a beautiful place,’ but if there’s crime all over the streets when you get there, it doesn’t look so beautiful … We’re going to fix [the] crime.”
The president also said that he aims to literally clean up the nation’s capital in the way of repairs, specifically noting trash, graffiti and broken marble panels.
“We’re going to restore the city back to the gleaming capital that everybody wants it to be,” Trump said. “It’s going to be something very special.”
By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News