President Donald Trump declared "Liberation Day in D.C." on Monday, announcing a "public safety emergency." The president will place the city's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under federal control and deploy 800 D.C. National Guardsmen to "establish law order and safety" in the city. The announcement came in response to last week's assault and robbery of Edward "Big Balls" Coristine, a former engineer for the Department of Government Efficiency.
Blaming the city's "abject failures of the city's leadership," the president specifically called "no cash bail" policies a disaster and vowed to challenge such policies nationwide, beginning with Chicago. Referring to "slums" and "caravans of mass youth" as he advocated more forceful police tactics, Trump appeared to contradict himself, painting the city's 3,500 officers as insufficient while calling a request for more officers "ridiculous."
The White House also announced that the president signed two executive orders. One authorizes the National Guard in D.C. due to a "crime emergency," including his notification to Congress and Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser. The other allows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deploy the National Guard in D.C. and coordinate with state governors for additional guardsmen.
