The city of Washington has now reportedly filed a lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump and the U.S. military, challenging his deployment of the National Guard to the nation’s capital — even as local leaders concede the increased federal presence has helped reduce crime.
Filed by the city’s elected attorney general, Brian Schwalb, a Democrat, the lawsuit claims Trump “has run roughshod over a fundamental tenet of American democracy — that the military should not be involved in domestic law enforcement.”
Schwalb argued that the National Guard’s deployment was “unnecessary and unwanted,” and, in his words, “dangerous and harmful” to residents of the District of Columbia.
“No American city should have the U.S. military — particularly out-of-state military who are not accountable to the residents and untrained in local law enforcement — policing its streets,” Schwalb said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “It’s DC today, but could be any other city tomorrow. We’ve filed this action to put an end to this illegal federal overreach.”
The legal action follows a California federal judge’s ruling earlier this week that the Trump administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th-century law that restricts the use of active-duty military forces in civilian policing.
Trump has dismissed such rulings as judicial overreach, maintaining that extraordinary threats to public safety require extraordinary measures.
The lawsuit portrays the deployment as “unprecedented” and “unlawful,” alleging that the Guard’s presence has caused “irreparable harm” to the city by undermining self-governance, fueling distrust of local law enforcement, and discouraging tourism and business activity.
Yet the city’s own mayor, Muriel Bowser, while publicly distancing herself from Trump, has acknowledged that the federal government’s surge in manpower has curbed violence.
She described the deployment as “not working,” but still credited the Trump administration’s actions with helping to bring down crime.
The broader effort has included not just Guard troops but a wide array of federal law enforcement agencies, which have often played a supportive role alongside local authorities.
For Trump and his allies, this multi-pronged presence represents a commitment to restoring order in the nation’s capital, where crime and unrest have surged in recent years.
Trump himself has made clear that Washington is not the only city under consideration for such action.
He has floated the possibility of deploying troops to other urban centers long plagued by crime, including Chicago, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
The suggestion reflects a broader philosophy that the federal government cannot stand idle while American families are endangered by violence in their own communities.
Schwalb, however, framed the matter in terms of autonomy. He accused the administration of “illegal federal overreach” and warned that the Guard could be deployed anywhere without accountability.
The clash underscores a familiar dynamic in Trump-era Washington: federal officials determined to take action against crime, and local Democratic leaders quick to brand such moves as unconstitutional or politically motivated.
With the lawsuit now filed, it will fall to the courts to decide whether the president’s use of military resources in the nation’s capital constitutes necessary protection — or, as Democrats argue, unlawful intrusion.
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