Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

US President Donald Trump set out his vision to make Washington DC "great again" earlier today, vowing to crack down on crime and homelessness in the nation's capital.

As our North America correspondent writes, appearances are as important as statistics for the president, who told reporters that Washington has been overrun by "violent gangs".

To address this, Trump says he will deploy the National Guard to the capital and put DC police under federal control.

The city's homelessness problem will also be targeted, with Trump saying they will be "getting rid of the slums" - though he did not offer any details about his plans.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has stressed that her city is "not experiencing a crime spike", and statistics show that crime is falling. Violent crime is also at a 30-year low, she added.

Bowser described the president's announcement as "unsettling and unprecedented" but not surprising.

We'll be bringing our live coverage to a close shortly. For more, you can read our news story here.

We can bring you more now from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who describes Trump's order as "unsettling and unprecedented". However, she adds, "I can't say we're totally surprised".

She says President Trump's view of the city is "shaped by his Covid-view experience during his first term", which she describes as "challenging times" for the district. "It's also true we experienced a crime spike post Covid", she says.

"We worked quickly to put laws in place that got violent offenders off our streets," she says. "We have seen a huge decrease in crime because of those efforts."

Violent crime is now at a 30-year low, she adds.

"We haven't taken our foot off the gas," Mayor Bowser continues, adding that she is looking for ways to make the city safer.

Speaking directly to residents, she says: "I can say we will continue to operate our government in a way that makes you proud."

• You can follow along her press conference by clicking Watch Live at the top of this page

Image source, Getty Images

The city's Mayor Muriel Bowser is responding to President Trump's announcement now.

In an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, Bowser pushes back against any claim of a crime wave in the city and says she is concerned at the idea of National Guard troops being deployed to enforce local laws.

We'll bring you the latest here - stay with us.

Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent

Political reaction here in DC to Trump’s move is anger - they’ve accused him of escalation, and say whilst there may be crime, the stats and day-to-day experiences do not show there is a crime emergency.

Brian Schwalb, the elected attorney general of the District of Columbia, called the administration’s actions to take control of policing the city “unprecedented, unnecessary and unlawful.”

Opponents also point out that at the moment House Republicans have yet to pass legislation to fix the $1.1bn (£0.82bn) hole in the capital city’s budget.

Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Council have long warned of looming lay-offs and service cuts.

Many of the president's critics also point to the fact that Trump is focused on Democratic-run areas, and doesn't mention murder rates in red states - like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.

Madeline Halpert
Live reporter

More now from the community group So Others Might Eat (SOME).

The group's president and chief executive, Ralph Boyd, says there is no quick fix when it comes to solving homelessness in Washington DC and across the country.

But Trump’s suggestion to move homeless people out of the capital is not a solution, he says.

“All it will do is transfer the problem somewhere else into communities that are perhaps less equipped to deal with it than we are," he says.

Boyd says moving people who are unhoused would cut them off from key community services that are already helping them - such as SOME’s programming as well as health care providers.

He adds that it will also disrupt the progress that some have already made toward finding stable housing.

Boyd says the federal government should be seeking input from local organisations that are already working to tackle the problem and seeing results.

Betty Gentle, the group’s senior director of advocacy and public policy, says the government also needs to invest in more affordable housing to address the root cause of the issue.

She says there are many areas that the government can support, such as mental health services, that will lead to lasting change.

“We need stronger and deeper investments,” she says.

Madeline Halpert
Live reporter

Local groups working with homeless people say the situation in the capital has actually seen progress in recent years.

Homelessness is down almost 20% for individuals in Washington DC in 2025 compared to five years ago, says Ralph Boyd, the president and chief executive of So Others Might Eat (SOME) - a group that provides people in the city with housing, clothing and other social services.

And when it comes to families, homelessness is down 43% in the capital, adds Betty Gentle, the group’s senior director of advocacy and public policy. She says the number of homeless encampments - which Trump has repeatedly mentioned - has also declined.

The biggest contributor to homelessness in the area - and major cities across the US - is a lack of available affordable housing, says Boyd.

That’s in spite of Washington DC having one of the highest minimum wages in the country, Gentle says.

“We have people who are living in shelter and work a full-time job and aren’t able to pay for rent,” she says.

During his speech earlier today, Donald Trump said law enforcement will target homeless people, as well as cracking down on crime, with the president saying his administration will be "getting rid of the slums".

And while it’s warm in Washington DC today, a few months ago homeless people in the capital were battling the bitter cold.

The BBC’s Tom Bateman spoke to several people living in tents and shelters on the streets of the city for a report in January.

Temperatures had dropped to 17F (-8C) overnight, and a foot of snow lay on the ground.

G had been sleeping rough for two years, after losing his job as a mason’s apprentice during the pandemic. He told the BBC he was doing whatever he could to keep warm.

“It was hard... I’m just trying to bounce back and gather my thoughts,” he said.

The city’s soup kitchens offered warmth, continuity and some sanctuary.

Angie, a survivor of domestic violence, was facing her first winter on the streets since coming to Washington after leaving her home state.

“It’s terrible. It’s just bone-chilling. You’re out there at night, early mornings, shelters tell you to get out at 06:00, waiting for buses till 07:30. You get here and get a hot meal. It’s like a race to get a hot meal, basically.

“This makes all the difference. There’s nothing like a hot cup of coffee and a hot meal when you have no money and nowhere to go.”

Around 800 National Guard soldiers will be activated in Washington DC following Donald Trump's orders, according to a statement from the US Army.

"During this activation, between 100-200 Soldiers will be supporting law enforcement at any given time," it says.

"Their duties will include an array of tasks from administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement," it continues.

DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb says the Trump administration's actions are "unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful".

In a statement, he says: "There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia."

"Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year.

"We are considering all of our options and will do what’s necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents," he adds.

What do the statistics show about violent crime in Washington DC?published at 18:19 British Summer Time 11 August

18:19 BST 11 August

Throughout the press conference, President Trump made repeated references to rising crime in Washington DC.

He pledged to “rescue our nation's capital from crime” and spoke of violent gangs prowling its streets.

Official crime statistics - published by Washington’s Metropolitan Police, external - show that violent offences fell between 2023 and 2024, and are continuing to fall according to preliminary data for 2025.

The data for this year to date suggests that robbery has fallen by more than a quarter and homicides by 12%, compared with the same time last year.

But there’s a difference in how crime figures are published by DC police and by the FBI. In 2024, for example, DC police data shows a 35% fall in violent crime while the FBI’s data shows a 9% drop.

So the figures agree that crime is falling in DC but differ on the level of that decline.

Nationally, violent crime in the US fell 4.5% between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest FBI estimates, external. These figures only include crimes that are reported to the police.

We've just heard Trump speak for nearly two hours about planned actions in the US capital, Washington DC as part of his pledge to crack down on crime and homelessness in the city.

Here's what we learned during his remarks:

• The White House has declared a public safety emergency in the city
• Trump is responding by taking federal control of the DC Metropolitan police and deploying National Guard troops to the streets
• He says the administration is doing this to reduce crime in the city, speaking about "caravans" of youth roving the streets and "bloodthirsty criminals" attacking people more than ever - though official stats show that crime is actually down in DC
• Law enforcement will target homeless people as well, with Trump saying, "We're getting rid of the slums", though he did not offer details on plans for addressing homelessness in Washington
• Beautification is also on the agenda, and the president said he wants the city to look nice for when foreign leaders visit
• Trump also spoke about his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin, saying he's going to "feel out" the Russian president's willingness to move toward ending the war in Ukraine

The president needs to provide Congress a notice of his plans to federalize the DC police within 48 hours, and even if he does that, DC's "home rule" policy says he can't take power for more than 30 days

'Feel-out' summit could be unscripted and unpredictablepublished at 17:37 British Summer Time 11 August

17:37 BST 11 August

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Donald Trump is characterising his Friday summit with Russian President Vladmir Putin as a “feel-out meeting".

Repeatedly during his just-concluded news conference, Trump said that he would listen to what the Russian leader had to say and then pass the word along to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders.

He broached the possibility that at the conclusion of Friday’s meeting, he may simply wash his hands of the conflict, which he again characterised as the responsibility of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

“I may leave and say good luck, that will be the end,” Trump said.

International diplomacy is typically a carefully choreographed undertaking. By the time national leaders meet face to face, considerable groundwork has been laid in lower-level talks, with little left to chance or surprise and both sides having a substantive understanding of the other’s positions.

As has been proven time and time again over the past eight years, however, this is not how Trump does business. Friday is shaping up as the kind of unscripted, unpredictable event with a global audience – just the way this president seems to like it.

During the news conference, Trump spoke at length about his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

He says he finds it "very respectful" that the Russian president is meeting him on US soil, and he thinks the pair will have "constructive conversations" on Friday.

But his comments on a possible "land swap" with Ukraine might not please President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has insisted his country will not give up any land as part of a peace agreement.

Trump says there will be "some land swapping" and "some changes in land" as part of a deal. He knows this "through Russia and through conversations with everybody".

This "land swap" will be "for the good of Ukraine", he says. "Good stuff, not bad stuff."

But then, perhaps less reassuringly: "Also, some bad stuff for both."

Asked if Zelensky was invited to Friday's meeting, Trump says Ukraine's president "wasn't a part of it" but that he "could go" if he wanted to.

Trump says he hopes to set up a future meeting between Zelensky and Putin, and offers to join the pair "if they need".

If Putin proposes a "fair deal" during Friday's talks, Trump says he will convey it to European leaders, including (as his first call) Zelensky.

"Probably in the first two minutes I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made," he adds. A reporter asks how he will know.

"Because that's what I do, I make deals," he says.

Tom Bateman
BBC News, Washington

In his press conference Trump offered a highly simplistic view of homelessness , portraying it as a blight that needs to be removed so cities can be “beautified”. He also wrapped it into announcing a series of measures he says are about controlling violent crime in Washington DC.

The causes of homelessness are complex, and can include issues around poverty, unemployment, mental health, lack of fair opportunities, former military service, drug use, or a combination of the above, among other factors.

Rates rocketed in many US cities following the Covid pandemic, highlighting the links between the issue and upheaval in the economy. I arrived in DC early last year after 7 years living and working in the Middle East, where the extended family remains a primary institution of economic welfare in many societies. Homelessness is far less visible across the region; and I remember being astounded by the levels of it here in DC.

While Trump’s implied conflation is to link rates of homelessness with the risk of violent crime for the general population, homeless people are in fact far more likely than the general population to be victims of violent crime, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless., external

A significant proportion of homeless women will also have experienced severe physical or sexual abuse at some point in their lives, according to the American Bar Association., external

In January, I interviewed Angie as she faced her first winter on the streets of DC. A survivor of domestic violence, she had fled her home state and was struggling to get help. In a soup kitchen she told me: “You’re out there at night, and early mornings, shelters tell you to get out at 06:00. It’s like a race to get a hot meal when you have no money and nowhere to go.”

How high is the murder rate in Washington DC?published at 17:11 British Summer Time 11 August

17:11 BST 11 August

By Jake Horton

During the news conference President Donald Trump said that "murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever" in Washington DC, adding that numbers “just go back 25 years”.

The homicide rate did rise in 2023 to around 40 per 100,000 residents - hitting the highest point in 20 years, according to FBI data.

However, that wasn’t the highest rate ever recorded - it was significantly higher in the 1990s and in the early 2000s.

So far this year, the number of homicides is down 12%, external compared with this point last year, according to the DC Metropolitan Police Department.

President Donald Trump's news conference has just come to an end - as he left the room, reporters shouted out questions about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as how long the deployment of the the National Guard to Washington DC would last.

We'll continue to bring you analysis on the key points raised by the US president, so stick with us.

Image source, EPA

Speaking on Russia and Ukraine again, Trump says he and European allies have "overdosed on the settlement of Ukraine".

He says European leaders specifically are tired of the war.

"They want to get back to building their own countries," he said.

The White House has just released the text of the executive orders that Trump signed today aimed at tackling crime in Washington DC.

In the order, Trump says that "rising violence in the capital now urgently endangers public servants, citizens, and tourists, disrupts safe and secure transportation and the proper functioning of the Federal Government".

The order puts the DC police under the control of the federal government because of an "emergency".

It also states that the "Attorney General shall regularly update me on the status of the special conditions of an emergency nature that exist in the District of Columbia that require the use of the Metropolitan Police Force for Federal purposes".

"The magnitude of the violent crime crisis places the District of Columbia among the most violent jurisdictions in the United States," Trump's executive order states.

Trump did not offer 10,000 troops to stop 6 January attackpublished at 16:53 British Summer Time 11 August

16:53 BST 11 August

Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent

Donald Trump claims he once offered 10,000 troops to Washington DC to help stop the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The attack was sparked by his supporters who believed him when he wrongly claimed the 2020 election result was stolen.

But his offer to deploy troops that day is not true.

In 2023, the committee investigating the attack released dozens of reports to challenge his narrative that he made a “recommendation for troops” and that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed to act on it.

Evidence showed no formal request was made, and the committee said that when he referenced troops, it was to a request to protect him and his supporters - not the Capitol.

Image source, Getty Images

As we’ve just heard, Donald Trump is preparing to send a deployment of National Guard troops to Washington DC as part of his new crackdown on crime and homelessness.

We don't know yet exactly how many troops Trump is planning to call in, but he says this move will "help re-establish law, order and public safety" in the US capital, and adds: "They're going to be allowed to do their job properly".

It was a measure the president utilised back in June, when he ordered 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to deal with unrest over raids on undocumented migrants. Both Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have pointed to the LA deployment during the announcement today.

This is a decision usually only taken by a state’s governor, and LA Governor Gavin Newsom’s office called Trump’s takeover “purposefully inflammatory", warning it would “only escalate tensions”.

The last time such a measure was used in DC was in response to the 6 January riots in 2021, which saw crowds of pro-Trump supporters force their way inside the US Capitol.

Ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration that followed just over a week later, members of the National Guard were sent en masse to the US capital, to deter any repeat of the deadly riots.