Closing summary
This ends our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back on Friday morning. Here are the latest developments:
As the federal takeover of the DC police continues, the Pentagon said that 800 national guard troops had been mobilized, with around 200 soldiers at a time taking turns to assist federal agents and the Metropolitan police department.
Donald Trump echoed the baseless claim that crime in the nation’s capital is the “worst it’s ever been”, despite data from the justice department showing that DC experienced a 30-year low in violent crime in 2024. Trump also said, again without evidence, that DC officials have created fake statistics to portray the rate of violent crime declining in the city. He added that they are “under investigation”, but didn’t name anyone specifically.
As part of its advertising blitz to attract new recruits, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) released a social media video on Thursday that uses a song by the rapper DaBaby and shows agency vehicles that appear to be painted in the same red, blue and gold style as Donald Trump’s private plane, which was featured in the opening sequence for The Apprentice.
New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, confirmed on social media that a federal building where protesters held a silent vigil on Thursday against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) was evacuated after “envelopes containing white powder were discovered”.
In another sign that the Trump presidency is largely made-for-TV, the White House and Fox News revealed that Trump will appear on Fox News both before and immediately after his summit meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday.
Four days after Trump ordered the unhoused residents of Washington DC, whom he sped past in his motorcade for a golf outing, to leave the city, local officials helped clear encampments before announced sweeps by federal agents.
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Officials in Washington DC act on Trump's order to clear city of unhoused residents before expected sweeps
Four days after Donald Trump ordered the unhoused residents of Washington DC, whom he sped past in his motorcade for a golf outing, to leave the city, local officials helped clear encampments before announced sweeps by federal agents.
The Washington Post reports that members of DC’s health and human services unit were clearing an encampment on a grassy area near the Kennedy Center after residents there were given one day’s notice to remove their belongings.
The Associated Press reports that about a dozen unhoused residents were seen packing their belongings near the Institute of Peace on Thursday. Items weren’t being forcibly thrown out by law enforcement, but an earth mover dug out and scooped away the remains of encampments, depositing them into the bed of an idling truck.
Volunteers from some of the agencies around the city that help unhoused people were on hand, and advocates said they expected law enforcement officers to fan out across DC later in the day to take down any remaining homeless encampments,
Amber Harding, director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, told the AP she believed that “federal law enforcement will begin systematically rounding up and arresting unhoused people.” She believed officers would ask people to move on or would “offer shelter,” arresting people if they refused either directive.
“We do not have enough shelter beds for everyone on the street,” Harding said. “This is a chaotic and scary time for all of us in D.C., but particularly for people without homes.”
Lucho Vásquez, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said his group was “focusing all energies on opening and operating temporary facilities” for anyone in need of emergency shelter, food or other resources after the removals.
From a former encampment near the Institute of Peace, DC’s deputy mayor, Wayne Turnage, told reporters that after the National Park Service notified the city it planned to close all such sites on federal and district land, Washington officials decided to tackle some of the work themselves.
“Closing encampments is a very, very complex process”, Turnage said. “We’re dealing with human beings who, in many cases, have been marginalized. Their lives are being disrupted. And so we have put a process in place that we think respects that”.
He said federal authorities have laid out an “aggressive timeline” that aims to finish closing encampments within about week, but it may not be possible to clear all 62 sites that quickly.
National Guard troops deployed to DC by the president could be used to evict homeless residents who fail to leave on their own. On Thursday, Trump said the troops, who are not trained for law enforcement or social work, are trained in “common sense”. He added: “they’re trained in not allowing people to burn down buildings and bomb buildings and shoot people and all the things.”
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