Trump plans ride-along with troops in Washington, D.C., crackdown

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Aug 21, 2025

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President Trump said he’s planning to ride along Thursday night with troops patrolling Washington, D.C., as part of his federal crackdown.

“I’m going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police and with the military,” Trump told conservative commentator Todd Starnes. “So we’re going to do a job. The National Guard is great. They’ve done a fantastic job.”

Trump gave no additional details of which law enforcement or military units he might join or when and where.

Trump’s move to personally join the controversial crackdown, which has lasted for two weeks, would amount to a new escalation in the show of force from the White House.

Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard soldiers have surged into the streets of the nation’s capital this month, leaving some residents on edge and creating tense confrontations in the streets.

Although the city has historically struggled with high crime, crime rates were sharply declining before Trump declared a putative emergency that required urgent federal intervention.

Troops and agents from an alphabet soup of different agencies have set up checkpoints on busy city arteries, injecting their authority into daily life.

Immigration enforcement has been a core part of the crackdown, rattling immigrants and Latino American citizens in many of the city’s diverse neighborhoods.

Since Aug. 7, when Trump began surging federal agents into the city, there have been 630 arrests, including 251 people who are in the country illegally, according to the White House.

Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure since then, claiming control of the D.C. police department on Aug. 11 and deploying more National Guard troops from Republican-led states.

Soldiers have been largely stationed in downtown areas, such as monuments on the National Mall and transit stations.

But federal agents have started to operate more widely through the city, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged Thursday.

“The surge of federal officers is allowing for different types of deployments, more frequent types of deployments, like checkpoints,” Bowser said.

Democrats have denounced the federal crackdown as a political stunt.

The law that permits the feds to exercise wide authority over law enforcement in Washington, D.C., says the crackdown can only last for 30 days unless Congress approves an extension.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said Democrats will block any effort to extend Trump’s emergency.

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