Washington, DC, United States – Outside Union Station in the US capital, bored-looking soldiers linger near two large armoured vehicles as commuters and tourists snap photos of the unusual scene.
Inside the century-old transportation hub, a dozen National Guard soldiers pace the marble floors, appearing to be armed only with zip-tie handcuffs.
Their presence did not directly disrupt traffic, but the Trump administration’s deployment of federal forces – part of its takeover of city policing – has left Washington residents fearful and confused.
Randy Kindle, a 48-year-old Air Force veteran, called the deployment a “show”.
“It’s disrespectful to our troops to have to invade their own country essentially and be pitted against their own citizens,” Kindle told Al Jazeera outside Union Station.
He said he witnessed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in neighbouring Maryland during which the immigration agents had their own film crew.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released a video of golden-branded ICE trucks with President Donald Trump’s name on the back featuring a rap song that says: “My heart so cold I think I’m done with ice.”
“This is a reality show for them,” Kindle said. “It’s a f****** idiocracy.”
Throughout Washington on Thursday, soldiers were seen going up and down the escalators at metro stations, chatting among themselves and loitering on street corners.
“From what I’ve seen and heard, many of the troops are standing around, many of them out in the elements, not supported with proper equipment or vehicles – frankly looking bored,” Washington Council member Zachary Parker told Al Jazeera.
Advertisement
“This is a manufactured crisis made up by the Trump administration for their own political gain,” Parker said.
Trump said the federalisation of Washington’s policing was necessary and aimed to combat what he described as rampant crime in the city.
But official data show that crime has seen a sharp decline in the US capital over the past few years, hitting a 30-year low in 2024, according to the US Department of Justice.
Parker warned that Trump’s move in Washington should not be taken lightly by the rest of the country.
He said that, at best, the Washington takeover may be an attempt to make Trump look tough on crime and distract from issues the US president is facing.
“A darker view of this moment is that this is a precursor of militarising American cities and streets and confronting American citizens with military might,” the council member told Al Jazeera.
“I think we ought to take this moment very seriously – both those of us here in DC, but Americans writ large.”
Trump praises the crackdown
Since the federal takeover began last week, the Trump administration has centred the issue in its public messaging.
For example, as of Friday morning, seven of the past 10 posts on X by Attorney General Pam Bondi were about Washington, DC.
Bondi has been sharing daily updates about arrests made in the city – a total of 719, including 40 on Thursday. Washington police arrested an average of 56 people daily last year, according to city data.
The Justice Department, which did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, has not specified whether the arrests were made entirely by federal agents or whether they include law enforcement action by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.
But ABC 7 News cited federal officials as saying the numbers included arrests by all agencies in the city.
It’s also not clear whether the detention of undocumented immigrants is included in the tally. Arrests made by ICE were only distinguished in Bondi’s daily announcements on Thursday and Friday.
But Trump and his aides are talking up the arrests as a considerable feat.
On Thursday evening, Trump rode around Washington with law enforcement officers in a show of control and defiance against critics of the crackdown.
“We’ve had some incredible results. … It’s like a different place. It’s like a different city. It’s the capital. It’s going to be the best in the world,” the US president told soldiers and law enforcement officers.
Advertisement
Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also visited Union Station on Wednesday, where they made a public showing of ordering burgers at a fast food restaurant as protesters chanted against them.
Trump first suggested federalising law enforcement in Washington after an employee of his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency was assaulted during a carjacking early this month.
Why Washington?
Since he entered politics in 2015, Trump has described major cities, which are almost all run by Democrats, as infested by crime, drugs and homelessness.
That perception echoed some rural conservative attitudes towards liberal cities.
Trump has long threatened to send the military to cities he views as dangerous, but the US Constitution gives the power of policing to the states, not the federal government.
Washington, DC, however, is not a state. As the US capital, it has no votes in the US Congress or enshrined state rights.
While the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 gives the local government some control over the city, the federal government retains some powers over Washington. For example, Congress may overturn local resolutions approved by the city council.
The law also allows the president to take over policing in the capital for 30 days.
Washington also votes overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party – Democrat Kamala Harris won the city against Trump, a Republican, with 92.5 percent of the ballots last year – and it has been ripe for a Trump crackdown.
Several residents expressed bewilderment to Al Jazeera and questioned the need for patrols by federal forces in crowded metro stations and tourist areas that are low-crime spots.
Iced out. 🥶 pic.twitter.com/xhexqgmbzS
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 14, 2025
Crime in DC
Washington is a city of 700,000 people with a metropolitan area that extends into suburbs in Maryland and Virginia and encompasses more than six million residents.
Kindle said some tourists and Republican officials want Washington to look like an “amusement park” rather than the densely populated metropolis that it is.
“They think that this is like Disneyland. This is a tourist spot. It should be sanitised for them,” he said. “But they’re seeing what they would see in their own cities.”
Despite improvements in recent years, several residents told Al Jazeera that crime still remains a concern in Washington.
The city has a homicide rate of about 25 per 100,000 residents, which is significantly higher than the national average but lower than other cities of similar size, including Detroit, Michigan, and Memphis, Tennessee.
US News & World Report, which tracks crime data for its rankings, does not include Washington on the list of the 25 most dangerous cities in the country.
Some welcome the National Guard
Washington continues to suffer from property crime that sometimes turns violent, especially carjackings involving juveniles, with 190 incidents recorded this year so far.
While defending the deployment of troops in DC, the White House argued on its website that Washington has the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country – “nearly six times higher than New York City and also higher than Atlanta, Chicago, and Compton.”
Advertisement
Leroy Miles, a 75-year-old retiree, said “it’s good” that federal forces are helping the local police.
Miles said he was no fan of Trump and called him a “crook” but accused local authorities of not doing an adequate job in combating crime.
“These young people out here, they’re robbing and killing. They’re carjacking. So they need some type of old law and order,” said Miles, who has always lived in Washington.
“What’s happening – a lot of people don’t like it, but it might work.”
‘Less safe’
Parker stressed that there is no crime crisis in Washington, but he added that it “doesn’t mean that we don’t have more work to do”.
“There are ways in which our local government can productively work with the federal government,” Parker said.
“And what is happening here – where there is an influx of federal officers across the city and National Guards, people deployed, including those from other states – is not the way. This is not how this should be done.”
He underscored that the Republican-controlled Congress has cut and so far failed to restore $1bn in funding for Washington – money that would go to fighting crime, paying police officers and supporting city services that enhance public safety.
The council member expressed admiration for the National Guard troops, who are called on to help in crises and natural disasters, but he said bringing outsiders to police the city could erode trust between the community and law enforcement officers.
“We’re already seeing it. I have heard directly from residents who are second-guessing calling 911 in instances of true emergencies for fear of what’s going to be the outcome or who might show up at their door,” he said.
“I’m hearing from parents that they are concerned about sending their kids to school for the first day of school next week. I am hearing from residents who are defending and rallying against ICE patrols that are seeking to criminalise our neighbours.”
Parker said the federal crackdown is making Washington “less safe”.
‘We are on edge’
A Washington Post poll released on Wednesday suggested 80 percent of Washington residents oppose “Trump taking control of DC’s police and federal troops patrolling the streets” while 72 percent of respondents favour the city becoming a state.
Loss of local control in a place where tax-paying citizens do not have federal voting representation is another aspect that is raising protests against the Trump takeover.
“We have, as a country, allowed for the disenfranchisement of Washingtonians, and now there is an effort to undermine the local autonomy that we do have,” Parker said.
Wes, a Washington resident who wished to be identified by his first name only, citing fear of reprisal by the government, warned that the tensions around the issue could boil over.
“We are on edge. You got people that’s scared to come out of their houses,” Wes said outside the Columbia Heights metro station, which saw a heavy ICE presence earlier this week.
“You got people scared to walk the streets like they used to because of this show of force. We do not trust the police here at all. Now you bring somebody we don’t know, that has no skills about you. They’re not even from here. They don’t know how this city works.”
He said that with people growing frustrated with excessive policing and cuts to social programmes, violence and riots could break out, and Trump would be to blame.
Advertisement
“He thrives on chaos. And if there ain’t no chaos, he creates chaos,” Wes said.