Overview

• In a TikTok video Alec Baldwin called the takeover an “insane move” and warned Trump may seek to federalize other city police forces and professional sports leagues.
• D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit on Aug. 15 alleging the administration misused a Home Rule Act provision to install an emergency commissioner over the Metropolitan Police Department.
• The administration has deployed roughly 800 National Guard troops and hundreds of federal agents under Title 32 orders to enforce checkpoints, juvenile curfews and clear homeless encampments in Washington.
• Local officials and civil-rights groups point to FBI data showing violent crime in the city at multiyear lows to question the necessity and duration of the federal intervention.
• The White House is evaluating whether to seek congressional approval to extend federal control beyond the initial 48-hour emergency window.