President Donald Trump has invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to assume temporary control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy roughly 800 D.C. National Guard troops, supplemented by units from at least six Republican-led states. The combined federal, state and local contingent now exceeds 2,000 uniformed personnel patrolling the U.S. capital. The White House says the operation, authorised for up to 30 days unless Congress extends it, is intended to curb violent crime and clear homeless encampments. Supporters of the intervention point to preliminary data circulated by the D.C. Police Union indicating steep declines since the crackdown began: carjackings are reported down 83%, robberies 46%, violent crime 22% and overall crime 8%. Republican lawmakers have cited the figures to argue that the federal presence should be made permanent and extended to other cities if necessary. Local opposition remains intense. A Washington Post survey found that 79% of District residents reject the federal takeover, while only 17% back it. Mayor Muriel Bowser has called the move "unsettling and unprecedented," and activist groups claim the enlarged force has led to racial profiling, illegal searches and the dismantling of homeless encampments. Legal scholars say the deployment relies on a hybrid Title 32 status that keeps National Guard units under state command but channels federal funding, sidestepping most Posse Comitatus Act restrictions. The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether District officials previously under-reported crime, a probe critics label an attempt to justify the intervention. The administration says the mission will be reassessed at the end of the 30-day window, but Trump has signalled he may send National Guard units to other cities if local leaders, in his view, fail to control crime.