BURSTRep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Tuesday it is “pretty clear” President Trump “wants his own domestic police force” after the president took control of the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
“Look, this president is trampling on basic freedoms of the American people to a degree we — I don't think we've ever seen,” Smith said on CNN. "You see that with what the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents are doing, in terms of picking people up off the streets with no evidence, no due process, locking people up."
“This is happening all across the country,” the Evergreen State Democrat added. “Look, it's pretty clear the president wants his own domestic police force, and step by step, he's trying to create it, and we should be deeply alarmed by that, regardless of how you feel about crime in Washington, D.C., or any other city.”
Trump announced Monday he was taking federal control of D.C.’s police department and deploying the National Guard in the city in an attempt to fight crime.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re not going to take it,” the president said.
Trump took over the MPD via the District of Columbia's Home Rule Act’s Section 740. Congress passed the act in the 1970s to give D.C. control over its local affairs.
The president’s recent moves in the District have drawn harsh blowback from Democrats, with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), whose state borders the nation’s capital, saying Monday in a thread on the social platform X that “Trump's raw authoritarian power grab in DC is part of a growing national crisis.”
“He's playing dictator in our nation's capital as a dress rehearsal as he pushes democracy to the brink. This assault on freedom is exactly why we've fought for DC statehood & to give DC control of its National Guard,” Van Hollen added.
“And by the way, Trump couldn't care less about safety in DC or the people of DC. If he did, he wouldn't have blocked DC from spending $1 billion of its OWN money to fund its OWN police department, schools and more,” he continued.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.