In a move that has sent shockwaves through the nation’s capital, the Trump administration attempted to seize unprecedented control over Washington, D.C.’s police force this week, igniting a fierce legal and political battle over the limits of federal authority and the future of local governance in the district.
On Thursday, August 14, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a directive announcing that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Terry Cole would serve as Washington’s “emergency police commissioner,” effectively granting him all the powers of the D.C. police chief. This stunning declaration meant that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) would now need approval from Commissioner Cole before issuing any orders, as reported by NPR. The move was part of a broader federal law enforcement takeover, justified by the Trump administration as a response to what it characterized as a crime emergency in the capital.
But local leaders weren’t about to let this pass without a fight. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb immediately denounced Bondi’s directive as “unlawful,” insisting that city police must continue to follow the orders of Police Chief Pamela Smith, who is appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser. Schwalb’s stance set the stage for a dramatic showdown between the heavily Democratic district and the Republican administration. Bowser herself took to social media to assert, “there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”
The controversy escalated when, earlier that same day, Chief Smith had directed MPD officers to share information with immigration agencies regarding individuals not in custody—a directive Bondi swiftly rescinded, along with other MPD policies that limited immigration inquiries or prevented arrests based solely on federal immigration warrants. Bondi’s order stipulated that all new directives must now be approved by Cole, further tightening the federal grip on local policing.
The legal and political drama unfolded against a backdrop of heightened federal presence in D.C. National Guard troops, federal law enforcement agents, and DEA officers fanned out across the city, their visibility impossible to ignore. By Thursday, approximately 800 National Guard members had been activated to carry out missions ranging from monument security and community safety patrols to so-called “beautification efforts,” according to Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson. “They will remain until law and order has been restored in the District as determined by the president, standing as the gatekeepers of our great nation’s capital,” Wilson stated.
Despite the show of force, officials emphasized that the National Guard troops were unarmed and trained in de-escalation and crowd control tactics. Major Micah Maxwell noted that the Guard would assist law enforcement in roles such as traffic control and crowd management, and that their presence was intended to support—not supplant—city police.
President Trump, for his part, defended the move as necessary to restore order, stating, “That’s a very positive thing, I have heard that just happened... That’s a great step if they’re doing that.” He denied that the deployment of federal officers had diverted resources from priority assignments like counterterrorism, insisting that the force was “very small” and that city police were now empowered to do their jobs “properly.”
Yet the administration’s claims of a crime emergency were sharply contradicted by Justice Department data. According to Reuters, violent crime in Washington had actually hit a 30-year low in 2024. While the city has struggled with spikes in violence and homelessness, its homicide rate remains below that of several other major U.S. cities. Critics accused the administration of exaggerating the crisis to justify an extraordinary assertion of federal power.
The situation reached a boiling point on Wednesday night, when officers set up a checkpoint in one of D.C.’s nightlife districts, resulting in 45 arrests—29 of which were for living in the country illegally. The arrests, and the heavy-handed tactics, drew protests from residents and advocates alike. Meanwhile, volunteers helped about a dozen homeless residents voluntarily leave encampments under the watchful eyes of city workers and law enforcement, with a general cleanup scheduled for Monday, August 18.
By Friday, the legal fight over control of the MPD had landed in federal court. In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, the Trump administration faced tough questioning about the legal basis for the takeover. “I still do not understand on what basis the president, through the attorney general, through Mr. Cole, can say: ‘You, police department, can’t do anything unless I say you can,’” Judge Reyes remarked during oral arguments, as reported by Reuters.
Facing mounting pressure from city officials and the court, the Justice Department agreed to scale back its attempted takeover. Under a deal negotiated at Judge Reyes’ urging, Police Chief Pamela Smith would remain in command of the MPD, and the precise role of DEA head Terry Cole—initially named as “emergency police commissioner”—would be subject to further negotiations. A revised directive from Bondi referred to Cole as her “designee” for purposes of directing the D.C. mayor to provide police services as the attorney general deemed necessary and appropriate. This arrangement left open the question of how far the city would have to go in assisting federal immigration enforcement, an issue that remained unresolved in the court-ordered talks.
The legal battle centers on the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act, a federal law that granted local self-governance to the district but also included a provision allowing the president to assume control of the police during emergencies for up to 30 days—a period that can be extended by Congress. While some legal experts noted that the Supreme Court has often been deferential to presidential declarations of emergency, others argued that Trump had exceeded his authority. As University of Minnesota law professor Jill Hasday observed, “Historically, courts have been very deferential, for better or worse, to presidential declarations of emergency.”
For many in Washington, the events of the past week have felt like a test of the city’s hard-won autonomy. “This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,” Schwalb declared in a widely shared social media post. The lawsuit he filed on behalf of the city named Trump, Bondi, Cole, and other administration officials as defendants, underscoring the high stakes of the confrontation.
As the dust begins to settle, the outcome remains uncertain. The federal government has pulled back—at least for now—from a full-scale takeover, but the boundaries between local and national authority in the capital have been left blurrier than ever. For residents of D.C., the past week has been a stark reminder of the unique and sometimes precarious status of their city, caught between the demands of self-governance and the realities of federal oversight.