The Department of Justice on Wednesday acerbically accused the D.C. Council of “callousness” toward the city’s residents for sending letters to more than a dozen U.S. governors asking that they withdraw their National Guard troops by September 1.
“Let me be clear, your council has no power to demand that governors remove their brave men and women from serving in uniform in our Nation’s capital,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald to the city’s lawmakers. “Your politically-motivated letter is impotent theatrics not worth the paper it’s written on, and D.C. is a much safer place no matter what you say.”
McDonald’s missive to the council — which was posted on social media — comes in the same week that the city marked a year since President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard in response to what he said were unacceptably high crime rates. It also stands as one of the administration’s loudest defenses of the Guard’s deployment, which is expected to continue through 2029.
“Directly coinciding with the assistance of the National Guard, the murder rate dropped substantially,” wrote McDonald. “To date, D.C. has seen the largest decline in violent crime in the history of the city, record safety for residents and tourists alike, the complete rehabilitation and beautification of the city’s history, monuments, and public spaces, and a total revitalization of the capital’s commercial and downtown regions.”
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“You might pretend violent crime isn’t down or act like the cause is unknown,” he continued. “But the public knows the city is safer. And honest people know why: on August 11, 2025, President Trump declared a crime emergency in D.C. and directed significant federal resources to protect life and liberty in the Nation’s capital. The results have been historic drops in violence.”
Earlier this week NOTUS reported that local reactions to the Guard’s continued deployment in D.C. have been mixed. Some residents say the troops are providing needed assistance and freeing local police up from menial tasks, while others say that having troops patrol the city’s neighborhoods sets a troubling precedent and could put people at risk should Trump order a more aggressive posture.
And while crime has generally declined over the past two years, many experts say that the McDonald’s argument that the National Guard is responsible mixes up causation and correlation. An analysis by the Niskanen Center found that the Guard’s presence may have helped contribute to a 24% decrease in property crimes, while not having much impact on violent crime.
Others say that the White House has skewed data to claim that its intervention with the National Guard has spurred declines in violent crime, even as cities across the U.S. were seeing such decreases before the president got involved. Historic drops in homicides and other violent crimes have occurred in Baltimore, just 40 miles north of D.C., without the same federal intervention D.C. has experienced.
Additionally, McDonald’s claims aren’t completely accurate. While homicides are down 33% from the same period last year, according to data maintained by the Metropolitan Police Department, overall violent crime is currently up 4% — driven largely by a 40% increase in assaults with a deadly weapon.
In their letters to the governors who have provided National Guard troops for the deployment in D.C., the council’s 13 members raised concerns over the cost of the ongoing mission.
“The deployment has … cost American taxpayers more than $3 million per day, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Continuing this deployment despite the absence of a demonstrated violent-crime benefit would misuse both taxpayer dollars –— in the billions, if maintained for years at its expanded scale — and the service of the Guard members themselves,” they wrote. “[W]asting those resources on an ineffective, indefinite deployment that neither District residents nor officials asked for is disrespectful to American taxpayers.”
“In addition, the continued presence of military personnel in the nation’s capital through future election periods also risks normalizing the use of armed forces in and around spaces where residents vote, organize, protest, and participate in civic life. Whatever their stated mission, Guard personnel should not become a standing feature of the political and electoral landscape of the District,” they added.
McDonald closed his letter to the council by repeating a request that other administration officials have made over the last year: “You should withdraw your letters and dedicate your remaining time in public service to correcting D.C.’s laws to ensure criminals are punished and the public is protected — not the other way around.”
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