--- title: Trump's D.C. Emergency Declaration Is Expiring. What's Next? description: Trump's takeover of Washington D.C.’s police force is set to expire Wednesday night, but the federal crackdown on the city isn’t over yet. canonical: https://time.com/7316078/trump-dc-crackdown-national-guard-police/ author: Connor Greene article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-10T18:11:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-09-10T20:19:13.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's D.C. Emergency Declaration Is Expiring. What's Next? og:description: Trump's takeover of the city's police force expires Wednesday night, but the federal crackdown on D.C. isn’t over yet. og:url: https://time.com/7316078/trump-dc-crackdown-national-guard-police/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6dff6718f0efd7/6998c9b025f3eeeb2d644fd1/GettyImages-2230137517.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump Increases Federal Law Enforcement Presence, Deploys National Guard In Nation's Capital og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's D.C. Emergency Declaration Is Expiring. What's Next? twitter:description: Trump's takeover of the city's police force expires Wednesday night, but the federal crackdown on D.C. isn’t over yet. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6dff6718f0efd7/6998c9b025f3eeeb2d644fd1/GettyImages-2230137517.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump’s Emergency Declaration for Washington, D.C., Expires Today. Here’s What Happens Next > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow Updated: Sep 10, 2025 8:19 PM UTCPublished: Sep 10, 2025 6:11 PM UTC  Members of the National Guard stand by at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on August 14, 2025. Members of the National Guard stand by at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on August 14, 2025. Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow Updated: Sep 10, 2025 8:19 PM UTCPublished: Sep 10, 2025 6:11 PM UTC President Donald Trump’s 30-day [takeover](https://time.com/7308788/trump-washington-dc-national-guard/) of Washington D.C.’s police force is set to expire Wednesday night, but the federal crackdown on the city isn’t over yet. Trump declared a state of emergency over crime in the nation’s capital one month ago, invoking a section of the [District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973](https://time.com/7309000/dc-home-rule-act-trump/) to take control over the local police force. The law, which gives D.C. residents a greater degree of self-governance but retains Congress’s constitutional authority over the city, only enabled Trump to federalize the D.C. police for up to 30 days. After that point, Congress would need to extend the White House’s emergency control—and House Speaker Mike Johnson has said lawmakers don’t currently have plans to do so. “No one’s calling on Congress yet,” Johnson [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOABnl%5FRgng) during a press conference on Tuesday, citing D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s ongoing cooperation and what he characterized as her “indefinite welcome mat” for the National Guard. In an order last week, Bowser [called](https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-provides-update-federal-surge) for ongoing collaboration between local and federal law enforcement “to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District.” The directive does not have an expiration date. The National Guard was not included among the agencies listed for coordination in Bowser’s order. The Mayor has said she does not “believe that troops should be policing American cities” and that the deployment of National Guard troops in D.C., especially those deployed by other states, “hasn't worked, in my opinion, and hasn't been efficient and is not on mission.” “If you have an agreement, my understanding is an agreement between the White House and the local leadership, then I’m not sure Congress has any necessity to do anything,” Johnson said. “So we’ll see how that plays out.” Under Trump's takeover, he directed that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) be put under Attorney General Pam Bondi's oversight. Bondi then sought to tap the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration to be D.C.'s "emergency police commissioner," but the city pushed back on the move as illegal and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) chief Pamela Smith has remained in charge. The end of the 30-day window is set to fully end Trump's authority in relation to the department, and Bondi's oversight. While Congress isn’t taking action to extend the President’s emergency declaration, however, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was set to meet on Wednesday to [discuss](https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-announces-full-committee-markup-of-legislation-to-ensure-a-safe-and-prosperous-district-of-columbia/) a series of bills that would increase federal control over D.C. Among the legislation being proposed is a bill that aims to [codify parts of an Executive Order](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/03/2025-05837/making-the-district-of-columbia-safe-and-beautiful) Trump issued earlier this year, including by establishing a “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Commission to coordinate across federal agencies and D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and to develop joint priorities to enable the full enforcement of Federal and local laws within the District,” according to a press [release](https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-announces-full-committee-markup-of-legislation-to-ensure-a-safe-and-prosperous-district-of-columbia/) from the Oversight Committee. Other proposals include lowering the age of juveniles who can be prosecuted as adults from 16 to 14 and allowing the president to appoint the city’s attorney general. Despite Trump’s control over the MPD ending, the Army has instructed the National Guard—which Trump deployed on the streets of the capital when he declared the state of emergency—to remain in D.C. through the end of November. “Our mission is not complete,” said Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard II, who oversees the Guard in D.C., in a social media [post](https://x.com/DCGuard1802/status/1963596959266361486). “I’ve made the decision to extend the encampment as we continue to ensure that everyone who walks through these city streets is safe.” The order only applies to the D.C. National Guard. It does not apply to the Guard members from other states who have also been deployed in the city; their next moves will be determined by their states’ governors. D.C. [sued](https://time.com/7314592/dc-sues-trump-national-guard/) the Administration last week over its deployment of over 2,000 federal troops in the city, describing their presence as a “military occupation.” “Deploying the National Guard to engage in law enforcement is not only unnecessary and unwanted, but it is also dangerous and harmful to the District and its residents,” said D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb. A federal judge earlier [ruled](https://time.com/7313929/trump-national-guard-la-los-angeles-marines-judge-ruling/) that Trump’s deployment of the Guard in Los Angeles in response to anti-immigration [protests](https://time.com/7292232/la-protests-trump-best-photos/) was illegal due to troops' use in civil law-enforcement functions. “The violations were not one-off acts by individual servicemembers but were rather the function of systematic and willful orders to troops to execute domestic law,” Judge Charles R. Breyer of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, saying the troops’ use suggested an effort to create a “national police force.” Since deploying federal forces in Los Angeles and D.C. this summer, Trump has threatened a number of other cities with potential crackdowns over crime and immigration. Trump indicated last month that Chicago was next in his sights, prompting the city to [prepare](https://time.com/7314593/chicago-trump-national-guard-ice/) for the presence of federal troops in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security [announced](https://time.com/7315444/trump-immigration-crackdown-ice-sanctuary-cities/) an immigration enforcement campaign in the city on Monday called Operation Midway Blitz, as well as launching a similar operation in Massachusetts over the weekend. However the full-scale crackdown on crime in Chicago that Trump has [suggested](https://time.com/7314045/trump-announcement-chicago-baltimore-national-guard/) has not yet materialized. Crime in [D.C.](https://time.com/7309133/dc-crime-stats-trump-national-guard/) and [Chicago](https://time.com/7311770/chicago-trump-crime-stats/), as in many other American cities, climbed during the COVID-19 pandemic but has been on a marked decline in the last couple years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7316078/trump-dc-crackdown-national-guard-police/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7316078/trump-dc-crackdown-national-guard-police/"},"headline":"Trump’s Emergency Declaration for Washington, D.C., Expires Today. 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