WASHINGTON (AP) – At about 2am, noisy revelries coming out of clubs and bars packed the sidewalks of Washington’s U Street, many of which were searching for late-night slices and falafel. The robust but unusual conditions of city police cruisers remained at the edge of the crowd. Other late-night hotspots have roughly the same scenes.
What was not clear in the earliest hours of Friday: all sorts of security lockdowns due to unified, multi-defended floods of federal law enforcement officials. What is that President Donald Trump has made a promise The administration’s latest move to impose will on the country’s capital from midnight on Thursday.
In short, Trump’s surge in law enforcement to control the streets of DC did not appear to be unfolding as planned. The two-hour city tour, which began around 1am on Friday, revealed no obvious or visible law enforcement agency other than members of the city’s police department.
It may still change to the evening, as Trump led his long-standing plan to “take over” the capital, which he repeatedly accused of not being safe, filthy and running badly. According to his declaration on Thursday, the security lockdown will be in place for seven days and “have the option to expand if necessary.”
On Friday night, White House officials said Thursday night’s operation was included. Arrest He is suspected of fentanyl and marijuana due to possession of two stolen firearms. Officials were not permitted to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Officials said more than 120 members of various federal agencies (Secret Service, FBI, and former US s Service) will be on duty Friday night to increase complementary federal officers involved.
“This is the first step towards stopping the violent crimes that have plagued the streets of Washington, D.C.,” White House Press Officer Caroline Leavitt said in a statement.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who played against Trump in 2020 when he called for a massive response from federal law enforcement to disperse the crowd of protesters, has not spoken publicly since Trump’s declaration. The MPD is similarly silent.
The crackdown occurred after the attack
The catalyst for this latest round of DC Takeover Drama is Last weekend’s assault About famous members of Government Efficiency Bureau Carjacking attempts by a group of teenagers. The victim, called “big ball,” Edward Coristine, was one of Trump’s Doge’s most visible figures, tasked with cutting the federal bureaucracy.
Police arrested the two 15-year-olds, who say they are still looking for other members of the group. Trump quickly updated his call for the federal government to take control.
“If DC hasn’t put that action together, and quickly, we have no choice but to take control of the city’s federal government and implement how the city should run. He later doubled those comments and told reporters he was considering everything, from abolishing Washington’s limited “home rules” autonomy to “bringing the National Guard, perhaps very quickly.”
The threat comes at a time when Bowser’s government can claim that it has legally reduced the number of murders spiked in 2023. Both of these fell sharply from 957 to under 500 the following year after 2024, and this year they are declining again.
However, more than 50% of the teens arrested for carjacking have been taken, and Bowser’s government has taken steps to govern a new phenomenon in violent teenagers, causing chaos and obstruction in public places. Emergency Act It imposes restrictions on the curfew for young people who passed DC Council earlier this summer, empowering police chief Pamela Smith to declare. Temporary boy’s curfew zone Four days at a time. In these areas, gatherings of 9 or more children under the age of 18 are illegal after 8pm
This is in the presidential authorities
Trump is within his authority to deploy federal law enforcement assets on DC Street. He can also deploy the National Guard, but they are not one of the 12 participating institutions listed in his declaration. The first Trump administration called the National Guard during the Black Life Matter protests in 2020, protesting again on January 6, 2021.
However, further measures, including taking over the police station, will require a declaration of a state of emergency. Legal experts believe they are likely to be challenged in court. That approach fits the general pattern of Trump’s second term. He repeatedly declared emergency on the issue of scope Border Protection In Economic Tariffs And often, they moved forward while the courts sorted them out.
These declarations allowed his administration to govern through executive orders. On Wednesday, Trump called the International Emergency Economic Force Act to declare New sanctions on Russia.
Congress is needed to impose a full federal takeover of Washington Abolishing the Home Rules Act 1973. This is what Trump said his lawyers are considering but could face a pushback.
Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for the Columbia area, said that the law is inherent to Washington and has its own home rule power, but not other U.S. communities that generally hold state legislation representatives.
The measure, signed into law by President Richard Nixon, allowed residents of DC to elect their own mayor, council and local commissioners. The district was previously run by federally appointed commissioners and members of Congress, some of which had to deal with the potholes and other details of running a city with 700,000 residents.
So far, Trump’s longstanding criticism of Washington can be most directly felt by the actions of the National Park Service, which controls the vast lands throughout the capital. In Trump’s second administration, the NPS has aggressively stepped up liquidation of homeless encampments at Park Serviceland, and recently implemented a series of arrests of people smoking marijuana in the park.
Earlier this week, the NPS saw a statue of a Confederate military leader who fell by protesters in 2020. It was restored and replaced Alongside Presidential Order.
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Associated Press reporters Mike Pesori, Michael Kunzelmann and Michelle L. Price contributed to the report.
