President Donald Trump announced Monday he was temporarily putting the Washington, D.C. police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard on the streets of the nation's capitol, a striking move taken over the objections of local leaders, who say Trump is exaggerating the city's crime problems.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that crime was down not just from a post-pandemic peak in 2023, but from 2019 levels prior to the pandemic.