President Donald Trump on 11 Aug. declared a public-safety emergency in Washington, D.C., invoking Section 740 of the Home Rule Act to place the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control. He said the city had become “a situation of complete and total lawlessness” and announced the immediate deployment of roughly 800 National Guard troops alongside more than 500 federal law-enforcement officers. Trump signed twin executive orders, including “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful,” directing agencies to dismantle homeless encampments on federal land and in city parks. “We’re getting rid of the slums,” he said, promising to relocate occupants to shelters “far from the Capital” or, if they refuse, to subject them to fines or jail time. By late Thursday and early Friday, agents from the FBI, Secret Service and other agencies, backed by city crews, bulldozed tent sites near the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial and Foggy Bottom. Local reports said more than 150 people had been arrested since the sweeps began, while notices posted at some camps gave residents until 19 Aug. to leave or face removal. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the need for federal intervention, noting police data showing violent crime down 26 % from a year earlier. She and District Attorney General Brian Schwalb have challenged U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order installing Drug Enforcement Administration chief Terry Cole as the city’s emergency police commissioner and suspending limits on cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Homeless-advocacy groups and religious leaders warned that mass clear-outs without adequate housing options could deepen displacement. Trump signaled the capital is only a “start,” saying he intends to seek a long-term extension of federal oversight and expand the crackdown to other U.S. cities.