As the Trump administration escalates its deployment of troops in the nation’s capital and vows comparable strikes elsewhere, leaders of largely Democratic cities throughout the nation are pushing back.
From Boston to Los Angeles, President Donald Trump’s portrayal of the District of Columbia as a lawless wasteland to justify his navy and legislation enforcement incursion is seen as a gap salvo in a bid to undermine the autonomy of America’s largest cities. On Friday, Trump promised to target Chicago next, then New York.
Many massive metropolis mayors, nonetheless, stay defiant, saying: Not so quick, Mr. President.
“Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, mentioned Tuesday, after Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened to prosecute native officers whose cities didn’t adjust to the White House’s immigration crackdown. “Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law.”
Bondi has made it clear the federal takeover in DC goes hand-in-hand with the administration’s hard-line immigration enforcement, utilizing management over legislation enforcement in the district as a method to attempt to put an finish to town’s legal guidelines that shield undocumented migrants. The federal authorities may slash funding to cities that don’t comply and ship in legislation enforcement because it has executed in Los Angeles and DC, Bondi has mentioned.
“Your attacks all come back to a common aim: The Trump Administration seeks to divide, isolate, and intimidate our cities, and make Americans fearful of one another,” Wu mentioned.
On August 11, Trump introduced the choice to declare against the law emergency and federalize DC’s police force, saying his administration was “going to restore the city back to the gleaming capital that everybody wants it to be.” Washington’s mayor and police chief have been caught off guard, studying in regards to the takeover for the primary time as they watched Trump announce it live. Violent crime in the nation’s capital is at its lowest ranges in a long time, based on metropolis officers.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser referred to as the president’s actions an “authoritarian push.”
The Home Rule Act of 1973 permits the president to take management of DC’s police for 48 hours if he “determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist,” which requires the division’s use for federal functions.
The president can retain management of the division for an extended interval if he notifies the chairs and rating members of the congressional committees that deal with legislative issues pertaining to DC. Trump indicated he intends to do. Any request of management over town’s police division for greater than 30 days should be handed into legislation.
Trump visits police, navy in DC amid federal takeover
In different states, nonetheless, governors management guard troops. During emergencies the president can federalize guard troops, as Trump did in Los Angeles in June, a transfer the state of California has challenged in federal court.
“You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” Trump mentioned throughout the announcement. “We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland.”
He repeated that message on Thursday, when he promoted his anti-crime initiative at a US Park Police facility in DC. He introduced pizza and hamburgers to legislation enforcement officers who greeted him.
“We’re going to make it safe, and we’re going to then go on to other places, but we’re going to stay here for a while,” he mentioned to dozens of legislation enforcement brokers and National Guard members gathered exterior the power to listen to him converse.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Friday, Trump vowed to “straighten” out Chicago subsequent and “then we’ll help New York.”
“They’re wearing red hats, African American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, ‘Please, President Trump, come to Chicago,’” the president mentioned.
And seeming to conflate his deployment of troops in DC along with his takeover of town’s police force, Trump on Friday mentioned he can hold the National Guard in the nation’s capital “as long as I want” if he declares a nationwide emergency.
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson in an announcement Friday mentioned town had obtained no formal communication from the White House regarding any deployments there. Johnson expressed “grave concerns” over an “unlawful deployment,” calling Trump’s strategy “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”
Johnson had earlier mentioned town “remains in regular communication” with fellow Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker in regards to the federal authorities’s actions, based on the mayor’s workplace. Johnson and different US mayors have referred to as on the Trump administration to revive greater than $800 million in violence and crime prevention grants the DOJ has withheld to force states into cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
“These anti-violence programs have a direct impact on our work to reduce crime and violence in Chicago. Sending in the National Guard could destabilize our public safety efforts and would be counterproductive to rebuilding trust between residents and law enforcement,” Johnson’s workplace mentioned in an announcement. Chicago police mentioned Friday homicides are down 31% this yr and shootings 36%.
Johnson accused Trump of “stoking fear and division while criminalizing poverty.”
In response to the president’s pledge to focus on Chicago, Pritzker in an announcement mentioned Trump is “playing a game and creating a spectacle.”
“As Donald Trump attempts to create chaos that distracts from his problems, we will call it out for what it is,” Pritzker mentioned. “Trump and Republicans are trying to distract from the pain they are causing working families – from tariffs raising the prices of everyday goods to stripping away healthcare and food from millions of Americans.”
LA seen as ‘test case’ for increasing function of navy
In Los Angeles, Trump defied Mayor Karen Bass by deploying National Guard troops and Marines to town in June to guard federal buildings throughout protests in opposition to the administration’s immigration insurance policies. In a democratic society, she mentioned, law enforcement problems should never need military solutions.
“I believed then, as I believe now, that Los Angeles was a test case. I think DC is a test case as well,” Bass advised NCS, warning that Trump’s incursion into the capital could possibly be a precursor for different unlawful energy grabs.
“The president (can) say, ‘Well we can take over your city whenever we want and I am the commander in chief and I can use the troops whenever we want.’ I think that is an abuse of our troops, and I think it is an overreach of presidential powers.”
Trump signed a presidential memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles in June to disperse the protests in response to immigration raids. Law enforcement in riot gear deployed tear gasoline and flash bangs to disperse crowds in the Los Angeles space over two days. Trump administration officers referred to as the protesters “lawless rioters.”
Bass’ workplace in an announcement mentioned crime is down in town and homelessness has dropped two consecutive years. Los Angeles officers mentioned final month town is on tempo for the bottom murder complete in 60 years.
“The latest actions in LA and Washington DC seem to be for the purpose of testing state and cities’ willingness to accept the federal government taking power away from local leaders when there is simply no need,” the mayor’s assertion mentioned.
“I’m going to look at New York in a little while,” Trump mentioned the day he took federal management of DC’s police force and mobilized National Guard troops.
The warning comes as New York City is on observe this yr to report the lowest number of shootings and murders in its recorded historical past.
“We don’t need anyone to come in and take over our law enforcement apparatus. We have the finest police department on the globe,” Mayor Eric Adams advised reporters in the future after Trump’s DC announcement. “We got this under control.”
Still, authorities are getting ready for the likelihood of a federal takeover – making certain civil disturbances are shortly and successfully dealt with to show there isn’t any want for added enforcement, a state official advised NCS this week.
Should a takeover try occur, state officers could be in communication with the National Guard however working to problem the motion in court docket, based on the official, who declined to be recognized as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk on the matter.
State officers have already spoken in regards to the chance of a deployment with the native head of the National Guard in New York, the official mentioned. While the National Guard should comply with orders from Washington, the official mentioned, they need to additionally stability the restrict of their capabilities since guardsmen will not be skilled as cops.
About 1,000 guard members are already deployed on missions in New York state, together with added safety at transit hubs, based on the official. Discussions amongst state officers started after ICE demonstrations turned heated in Los Angeles, the official mentioned.
Baltimore mayor pressed on residents reporting crime, medicine in their neighborhoods
In Baltimore, about 40 miles north of DC, Mayor Brandon Scott advised NCS town has had the fewest homicides in 50 years. He mentioned it’s “notable” that the cities Trump talked about all have Black mayors and historic drops in violent crime.
“What we know about this administration is that we have to be ready for anything,” Scott’s workplace mentioned in an announcement. “We can’t let the chaos coming from Washington distract us from the critically important work happening here in Baltimore and in cities across the country that is saving lives and reducing crime.”
At the identical time, Trump’s DOJ has reduce about $1.2 million from group violence intervention applications, based on the assertion.
“Our federal law enforcement partners have real jobs to do — in partnership with state and local leaders — to investigate and prevent crime,” the assertion added.
“The President doesn’t care about stopping crime. He’s slashing funding for organizations that are working to prevent crime in communities nationwide — yet he’s claiming the Black mayors of DC, Baltimore, Chicago, and Oakland are the problem. It’s all a distraction from his own failures: the chaos of the economy, the Epstein files, and America’s falling standing in the world.”
In Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee dismissed Trump’s characterization of town as “wrong and not grounded in facts, but in fearmongering.”
“This is not leadership — it’s an attempt to score cheap political points by tearing down communities he doesn’t understand,” she mentioned in an announcement, NCS affiliate KRON-TV reported.
Earlier this month, the Oakland Police Department reported that violent crime was down 29% this yr by means of June 30. Homicides dropped 21%, rapes decreased 24% and robberies declined 41%.
In Philadelphia, one other largely Democratic metropolis whose violent crime has decreased considerably since post-pandemic peaks, District Attorney Larry Krasner held his personal press conference in a West Philadelphia church in the future after Trump’s announcement.
“The only emergency I can think of for public safety is what we call D.J.T.,” the progressive prosecutor mentioned, flanked by non secular leaders. “Donald J. Trump is the emergency right now in big cities in America.”
Krasner advised NCS the present administration would don’t have any authorized grounds to federalize the Philadelphia Police Department, and there’s no purpose to justify sending in the National Guard.
“He may think he’s gonna try it in other places, but the fact is legally he has much less of a right to do any of this in other cities, and he better not try it in Philly,” Krasner told NCS.
Homicides, shootings, and armed robberies are down 16%, 19%, and 20%, respectively, in Philadelphia in 2025 in comparison with the identical interval final yr – and down much more in comparison with 2021 highs, based on police division information.
“We have seen a record drop in crime in urban America … Philadelphia actually leads the nation in the biggest reduction in violent crime today versus where we were a few years ago,” Congressman Brendan Boyle, who represents Philadelphia, told NCS.
“The timing doesn’t make any sense in this respect,” mentioned the Democratic consultant when requested if he’s anxious about Trump’s warning.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s workplace declined to remark to NCS on the continuing federal takeover in DC or any hypothetical actions in Philly.
In response to Trump’s actions in DC, Democratic state Sen. Art Haywood, who represents half of Philadelphia, launched a memo asserting the “Protecting PA Police Act.”
Haywood’s workplace defined the intent of the laws could be to explicitly forestall any federal takeover of “1,000 municipal police departments (or) our state police.”
Further particulars or a draft of the proposed laws haven’t been launched.
“This effort is about defending our police and protecting the dignity of our neighbors,” Haywood in an announcement to NCS. “Strong, trusted relationships between police and residents are essential to public safety.”
Though unpopular amongst DC residents – 79% oppose the federal legislation enforcement incursion, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll mentioned – Trump took to Truth Social on Friday, praising the trouble: “Washington, D.C. is SAFE AGAIN! The crowds are coming back, the spirit is high, and our D.C. National Guard and Police are doing a fantastic job.”