US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he is deploying the National Guard across Washington and taking control of the city's police department in an effort to reduce crime. This comes despite the city's mayor pointing out that crime rates are already falling in the U.S. capital.
The Republican president, who said he was formally declaring a public safety emergency, compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, News.Az reports citing Euronews.
Trump also said at his news briefing that his administration has started removing homeless encampments "from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks."
"We're getting rid of the slums, too," Trump said, adding that the US would not lose its cities and that Washington was just a start.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi will be taking over responsibility for Washington's metro police department, he said, while also complaining about potholes and graffiti in the city and calling them "embarrassing."
For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings.
But the move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials as well as the National Guard, raising fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts.
