Is It Constitutional for Trump to Control Washington, DC Police?

President Donald Trump addressed reporters from the White House briefing room on Monday morning, August 11, 2025, to announce that he would deploy the National Guard to Washington, DC. He has made recent threats to take federal control of Washington, DC, because of increasing youth crime.

“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said on Monday. “We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.” 

According to Cami Mondeaux at The Deseret News, Trump declared in his Monday morning news briefing that he was invoking Section 740 of Washington’s Home Rule Act that allows the President of the United States (POTUS) to take emergency control of DC police for 48 hours. The time period can be extended to 30 days once he notifies Congress. This means that the Metropolitan Police Department would be under federal controls while Trump attempts to control juvenile crime. Removal of homeless encampments would also take place during federal control of the capital city. Later, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that the deployment of the National Guard would happen sometime next week, to support law enforcement rather than acting as law enforcement. 

According to Carlos Garcia at The Blaze, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi acted right on cue to accuse Trump of using the National Guard to distract Americans from other actions.

“Donald Trump delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6^th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake,” Pelosi wrote. “Now, he’s activating the DC Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, health care, education and immigration – just to name a few blunders.”

Pelosi probably wishes that she had remained silent because Steven Sund, a former Capitol Police chief who was in charge of the U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 6, responded politely but fiercely. 

“Ma’am, it is long past time to be honest with the American people. On January 3, I requested National Guard assistance, but your Sergeant at Arms denied it. Under federal law (2 U.S.C. §1970), I was prohibited from calling them in without specific approval. That same day, Carol Corbin at the Pentagon offered National Guard support, but I was forced to decline because I lacked the legal authority,” he wrote.

“On January 6, while the Capitol was under attack and despite my repeated calls, your Sergeant at Arms denied my urgent requests for over 70 agonizing minutes, ‘running it up the chain’ for your approval,” Sund added.

“When I needed assistance, it was denied,” he concluded. “Yet when it suited you, you ordered fencing topped with concertina wire and surrounded the Capitol with thousands of armed National Guard troops.”