As the September 30 funding deadline looms, Washington, D.C. finds itself at the epicenter of a fierce national debate over federal power, local autonomy, and how best to address crime in American cities. President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on crime—beginning with the unprecedented federalization of D.C.’s police force and the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops—has ignited political tensions not just in the nation’s capital, but across the country.
According to Nexstar Media, the latest budget battle between top Republicans and D.C. leaders is set to intensify when Congress returns next month. The last government shutdown showdown left D.C. with a staggering $1 billion budget hole after Congress overrode the city’s local spending plans. Now, with the fiscal year’s end fast approaching, local officials are scrambling to prevent history from repeating itself. D.C. Council member Christina Henderson explained, “We are continuing our conversations with our appropriators and the four corners in Congress, because we know that sometimes the politics of the White House are very different from the politics of appropriators in terms of actually doing appropriations.”
Despite the District’s decades-old “home rule” status, Congress still holds the power to approve D.C.’s budget. In a twist earlier this year, a GOP-crafted stopgap funding bill passed in March omitted language that would have allowed D.C. to spend its local tax dollars at already-approved 2025 levels. As a result, the city was forced to operate under previous fiscal 2024 limits, despite having run at updated budgets for months. Top Republican appropriators called the omission an error, but Democrats remain suspicious. While the Senate quickly approved a fix, the House has stalled for months, with hard-line conservatives pushing for new restrictions on how D.C. spends its own money.
Meanwhile, President Trump has doubled down on his hardline approach to crime in the capital. He’s federalized the Metropolitan Police Department, deployed more than 1,000 National Guard troops, and brought in federal agents from the FBI, DEA, ATF, and immigration enforcement to patrol D.C.’s streets. The president’s actions have drawn both praise and condemnation. Republicans have largely cheered the crackdown, while Democrats and local leaders have voiced alarm at what they see as an erosion of local self-governance.
Trump has not minced words about his intentions. On Truth Social, he accused the city of creating “fake crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety” and warned Mayor Muriel Bowser to “immediately stop giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures, or bad things will happen.” He even threatened a “complete and total federal takeover of the city.” In a meeting with reporters, Trump announced plans to ask Congress for $2 billion to “beautify” D.C. within a year, declaring, “We’re going to have this place beautified within a period of 12 months.”
The president’s approach hasn’t stopped at D.C. On August 24, 2025, Trump threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Baltimore, escalating a public spat with Maryland Governor Wes Moore. Trump wrote, “If Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime.” Governor Moore fired back, calling Trump’s comments “so, so tone deaf and so ignorant,” and arguing, “It’s because they have not walked our streets. They have not been in our communities, and they are more than happy to keep making these repeated tropes about us,” as reported by BBC.
This pattern of federal intervention has alarmed Democratic leaders nationwide. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called Trump’s threats to deploy troops to Chicago an “abuse of power,” while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries asserted that the president lacks the legal authority to dispatch troops to cities like Baltimore and Chicago. Jeffries accused Trump of exploiting declining crime rates—such as Baltimore’s “fewest homicides in over 50 years”—to manufacture a crisis.
Trump has made no secret of his broader ambitions. As reported by The New York Times, he announced plans to target Chicago and New York for similar federal crackdowns, suggesting he would be willing to use active-duty troops if necessary. “We haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do if we have to,” Trump said. “After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe.” He called Chicago “a mess” and said, “We’ll straighten that one out.” Despite these bold statements, Trump admitted he had not taken concrete steps toward federal intervention in Chicago yet.
But the president’s ability to exert direct control is far greater in D.C. than in other cities. D.C.’s unique status as a federal district, rather than a state, gives the White House more leeway. The Home Rule Act allows the president to temporarily control D.C.’s police force during emergencies, but similar laws do not exist for other municipalities. Governors, not the president, typically command state National Guards. However, courts have upheld Trump’s federalization of National Guard troops in California, potentially emboldening him to try similar tactics elsewhere.
The legal and political controversy is matched by sharp divides among the public. A YouGov survey released in August 2025 found almost half of Americans disapprove of federal control over D.C. police and the deployment of the National Guard, with just under 10 percent of Democrats approving, compared to 74 percent of Republicans. A Washington Post and Schar School poll found nearly 80 percent of Washington residents opposed to both the deployment of federal officers and the National Guard, as well as the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Despite the heated rhetoric, data from the Metropolitan Police Department tells a different story. Violent offenses in D.C. peaked in 2023 but dropped to their lowest level in 30 years by 2024 and have continued to fall in 2025. Violent crime is down 26 percent and robbery down 28 percent compared to the previous year. Similar trends are seen in Chicago, where murders, shootings, and robberies have all fallen significantly in 2025.
Mayor Bowser’s office reported in May that, despite a $1.13 billion cut to D.C.’s budget, the city managed to prevent layoffs and furloughs through a hiring freeze that saved $63 million in personnel costs and $175 million in non-personnel service reductions. Some spending, including for workforce investment and housing, was shifted to future years.
As Congress prepares for its next funding battle and Trump signals more federal crackdowns, D.C. Council member Henderson summed up the city’s frustration: “You don’t want to have the same situation happen again, whereas, you know, you’re beating the city over the head talking about you’re not doing enough on public safety, and then you’re literally saying we can’t spend our money on the thing that you told us to fix. That’s nonsensical, but crazier things have happened.”
The coming weeks will test not only the balance of power between federal and local governments, but also the nation’s resolve to address crime without sacrificing democratic norms or local autonomy. With the clock ticking, all eyes are on Washington—and what happens there may soon echo far beyond the capital’s borders.
