DC Sues to Stop Trump’s Guard Surge, Calls It an Illegal “Military Occupation”

Washington, DC, is taking the Trump administration to court over the flood of National Guard troops patrolling the capital’s streets.

District Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed suit Thursday asking a federal judge to block President Donald Trump’s deployment, calling the move an unlawful use of the military for domestic law enforcement and a direct hit to the city’s limited self-rule.

“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” Schwalb wrote.

What DC is arguing

• The deployment — now well over 1,000 Guard members, many from GOP-led states and deputized by US Marshals — violates the Posse Comitatus Act, the Home Rule Act, and the District’s autonomy.
• Troops are patrolling neighborhoods, conducting searches, and making arrests, roles the lawsuit says belong to local police, not the military.
• The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to stop what it calls “unprecedented, unlawful” federal overreach.

The administration says the president is well within his authority to send the Guard to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement. Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson blasted the suit as an effort “to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC.”

Trump took control of the DC police on Aug. 11 and surged federal officers and Guard units. Orders for Guard members have been extended through December, signaling a long haul.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has criticized the Guard mission but also noted crime was already trending down and has since fallen further; she’s avoided endorsing the lawsuit while pushing for a managed exit from the federal emergency.

On Capitol Hill, DC Council members and activists blasted the deployment at a “Federal Forces Out Now” event, calling it an authoritarian takeover.

In states, governors control the Guard. In the District, the Guard reports to the President, giving the White House unusual latitude. Schwalb argues that doesn’t permit using out-of-state Guard units to police city streets without local consent — or to sidestep long-standing limits on military involvement in civilian law enforcement.

Earlier this week, a federal judge in California ruled Trump’s National Guard deployment to Los Angeles for law-enforcement duties was illegal. That decision doesn’t automatically apply to DC, but it adds momentum to legal challenges of the president’s broader anti-crime surge.

The District wants a permanent injunction halting the troop mission. The administration is eyeing similar deployments in Chicago and Baltimore, despite local opposition.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are floating a bill to oust DC’s elected attorney general and replace the post with a presidential appointee — underscoring just how political the city’s public-safety fight has become.

DC’s lawsuit frames Trump’s crime crackdown as a constitutional overstep and a test of the line between federal power and local control. The courts will decide how far a president can go in turning soldiers into street cops in the nation’s capital.

With input from the Associated Press, CNN, CNBC, and Axios.