A viral video showed part of what day one of President Donald Trump‘s federal takeover in Washington, D.C., looked like after a federal agent was seen trying to determine whether a man was smoking marijuana outside when he was merely smoking a cigarette.
Hundreds of National Guard troops and personnel from a variety of federal law enforcement agencies have taken to the streets of the nation’s capital to curb what the president alleges is a rampant and unchecked increase in violent crime.
New footage that has been widely reshared on social media shows several agents walking the streets of the city when they come across a group of Black residents.
One of the agents, whose insignia appears to mark him as a US Park Police officer, politely greets the group, then stops, points at one person, and asks if he has his ID while looking questionably at the cigarette the man is smoking.
The man informs the agent that he resides at the home they’re visiting, and then confirms that he’s only smoking a cigarette.
The agent nods and turns away, looking as if he’s about to walk off, but then he looks at the rest of the group and begins pointing his flashlight at them.
After the resident questions the reason for the agents’ presence in the neighborhood, the lead agent says that they’re “doing checks, keeping everybody safe down here,” and explains that D.C. is under federal control.
He says that while the main objective is to mitigate violent crime, the agents are surveying the city for several “quality of life issues,” like smoking and drinking in public, adding that they’re also advising residents about the law.
When the resident asks why the agent started questioning him, the officer told him that “it smelled like the odor of marijuana,” and that he saw something lit in his hand. He then goes on to inform the group about the current police state in D.C.
“Tell your boys, everybody’s out from the FBI to the police,” the agent says. “So, do your thing, let them know. Don’t be smoking outside, don’t be drinking outside.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that roughly 850 officers and agents were dispatched across the city on Aug. 11, and made 23 arrests for a range of crimes, including homicide, firearms offenses, stalking, DUI, and fare evasion.
“This is only the beginning. Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the District who breaks the law, undermines public safety, and endangers law-abiding Americans,” Leavitt said at a press conference.
A Department of Defense official told NBC News that the National Guard is charged with security, crowd management, perimeter control, and communications support for the city’s law enforcement.
Guard members will not be arresting, searching, or performing “direct law enforcement” and, in most cases, won’t be carrying firearms, according to the official.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump’s directive “unsettling and unprecedented,” and believes that the White House is using the nation’s capital as a testing ground to determine whether this initiative can be deployed in other cities.
“He wants to send the message to cities that if he can get away with this in Los Angeles, if he can get away with this in D.C. — he can get away with it in New York, or Baltimore, or Chicago, or any other place where millions of people live, work and are doing everything the right way,” Bowser said on “The Breakfast Club.”
She also denounced Trump’s insinuation that D.C. has become a lawless city where violence has consumed the streets.
“We’re not some hellscape. We’re a beautiful city,” Bowser told WRC-TV.
Federal and state data revealed that violent offenses in the city have seen double-digit decreases. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) statistics show a 26 percent drop in violent crime this year so far, compared to the same period last year.
A recent Department of Justice report shows that violent crime is down 35 percent since 2023, returning to the previous trend of decreasing crime that puts the District’s violent crime rate at its lowest in 30 years.
