Donald Trump has seized control over the Washington DC police force and deployed the national guard.

At a White House press conference, Trump declared “Liberation Day” in DC, saying he is planning to take the capital back.

“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse,” he said.

Claiming the nation’s capital has a higher murder rate than Bogotá or Mexico City, Trump has suggested it is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Even though, according to the United States Attorney Office violent crime is at a 30-year low.

Trump described Washington as an area “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people”.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called the action “unsettling and unprecedented”, but refrained from outright criticising the president.

“I’ve said before, and I’ll repeat, that I believe that the president’s view of DC is shaped by his COVID-era experience during his first term,” she said.

“It is true that those were more challenging times related to some issues. It is also true that we experienced a crime spike post-COVID but we worked quickly to put laws in place and tactics that got violent offenders off our streets, and gave our police officers more tools.”

The Metropolitan Police Department weekly statistics show violent crime has decreased significantly since 2023, overcoming the epidemic spikes. This year, it has decreased by 26 percent, and the sharp declines in violence in the nation’s major cities are in line with the shift in crime rates.

Among the officials who joined Trump at the conference was Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that 800 national guard would be patrolling Washington’s streets over the course of the next week.

“They will be strong, they will be tough and they will stand with their law enforcement partners,” he said.