Hundreds arrested as Trump's Washington, DC, crime crackdown hits full stride

The Trump administration's crackdown on violent crime in Washington, D.C., has already netted more than 240 arrests and taken 38 guns off the streets, a White House official told Fox News.

The show of force has swept up gang members, robbery suspects and immigration violators. On Friday alone, 52 people were arrested, including 28 illegal immigrants, while three guns were seized.

Federal teams also cleared 25 homeless encampments, and officials said those removals were carried out without confrontations or arrests.

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White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller hailed the scale of the operations and said the numbers are "breathtaking."

"We have seen a record number of violent offenders, bad guys, gang members and all kinds of threats to public safety removed off the streets as well as their illegal weapons that they've been using to terrorize the citizens of this city," Miller told "Fox News Live." 

"Additionally, we have seen over 70 homeless encampments that have scarred and disfigured the public streets of this city, dismantled and thrown away and the homeless cleared from those encampments. At the same time, we have the National Park Service going around and getting rid of the gang graffiti that has been left untouched by this city for decades."

The operation began quietly Aug. 7 with the launch of the "Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful" task force created by President Donald Trump in March through an executive order. 

He escalated it Aug. 11 by temporarily seizing federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under emergency powers in the Home Rule Act, the first such move in U.S. history.

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The order puts the MPD under federal authority for up to 30 days, unless Congress extends it, and 800 National Guard troops were deployed. 

In all, 22 multi-agency teams with more than 1,800 personnel were deployed across all seven police districts as the president vowed to aggressively "take our capital back."

"We have a capital that's very unsafe. … Something's out of control. But we're going to put it in control very quickly," Trump said Monday. 

Other arrests included drug distribution, weapons violations and outstanding warrants. Police also detained suspects accused of fleeing law enforcement, reckless driving, assault with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping.

The D.C. National Guard carried out roving patrols on foot and in vehicles around the National Mall and Union Station last night. While they remain armed, the officials stressed they are not making arrests, instead securing federal assets and providing cover for police.

Trump began floating the idea of federalizing D.C. law enforcement after the brutal beating of a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee during an alleged attempted carjacking in Washington's Logan Circle. He then moved to ramp up his crackdown on Monday, invoking the Home Rule Act. 

Democrats and local officials pushed back, noting MPD and the U.S. Attorney's Office report violent crime is at a 30-year low, down 35% from 2023 to 2024. 

FBI data for the same period shows a much smaller decrease of around 9%, highlighting a substantial gap between local and federal statistics. The discrepancy stems from differences in how crimes are classified and reported to federal databases.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser described the federal action as "unsettling and unprecedented," while Democrats have introduced a joint resolution in an effort to put the brakes on the federal takeover of police.