{"id":87222,"date":"2025-08-16T12:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/87222\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T12:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:40:11","slug":"trump-admin-backs-off-washington-dc-police-takeover-after-striking-deal-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/87222\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump admin backs off Washington, DC police takeover after striking deal | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump had placed Washington\u2019s police department under federal control earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The administration of US President Donald Trump has reversed course and agreed to leave the Washington, DC police<\/a> chief in control of the department, after Washington officials and the United States Justice Department negotiated a deal at the urging of a federal judge.<\/p>\n

Trump had placed Washington\u2019s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under federal control on Monday and ordered the deployment of 800 National Guard troops onto the streets of the capital, claiming a surge in crime.<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon, a deal was hammered out at a federal court hearing after Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb had sought a court order blocking Trump\u2019s police takeover as illegal.<\/p>\n

Trump administration lawyers conceded that Pamela Smith, the police chief appointed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, would remain in command of the Metropolitan Police Department, according to the accord presented by the two sides to US District Judge Ana Reyes.<\/p>\n

But US Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a new memo, directed the district\u2019s police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the precise role of Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole, who had been named by Bondi as the city\u2019s \u201cemergency police commissioner\u201d under Trump\u2019s takeover bid, is still to be hashed out in further talks.<\/p>\n

In a social media post on Friday evening, Bondi criticised Schwalb, saying he \u201ccontinues to oppose our efforts to improve public safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

But she added, \u201cWe remain committed to working closely with Mayor Bowser.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal battle<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s legal battle is the latest evidence of the escalating tensions in mostly Democratic Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

As the weekend approached, though, signs across the city \u2014 from the streets to the legal system \u2014 suggested a deepening crisis over who controls the city\u2019s immigration and policing policies, the district\u2019s right to govern itself and daily life for the millions of people who live and work in the metro area.<\/p>\n

Bowser\u2019s office said late on Friday that it was still evaluating how it can comply with the new Bondi order on immigration enforcement operations. The police department already eased some restrictions on cooperating with federal officials facilitating Trump\u2019s mass-deportation campaign but reaffirmed that it would follow the district\u2019s sanctuary city laws.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent Friday night to DC citizens, Bowser wrote: \u201cIt has been an unsettling and unprecedented week in our city. Over the course of a week, the surge in federal law enforcement across DC has created waves of anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that \u201cour limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now,\u201d but added that if Washingtonians stick together, \u201cwe will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy \u2013 even when we don\u2019t have full access to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police takeover<\/a> is the latest move by Trump to test the limits of his legal authorities to carry out his agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to bolster his tough-on-crime message and his plans to speed up the mass deportation of undocumented people in the United States.<\/p>\n

While Washington has grappled with spikes in violence and visible homelessness, the city\u2019s homicide rate ranks below those of several other major US cities, and the capital is not in the throes of the public safety collapse the Trump administration has portrayed.<\/p>\n

The president has more power over the nation\u2019s capital than other cities, but DC has elected its own mayor and city council since the Home Rule Act was signed in 1973.<\/p>\n

Trump is the first president to exert control over the city\u2019s police force since the Act was passed. The law limits that control to 30 days without congressional approval, though Trump has suggested he would seek to extend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump had placed Washington\u2019s police department under federal control earlier this week. The administration of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,2302,12,3,1583,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-87222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-police","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-us-canada","19":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}