The president faces backlash after taking DC police control despite a historic drop in violent crime

Donald Trump has launched an extraordinary federal takeover of Washington DC’s police force, ordering the national guard into the city and declaring it “lawless” — despite official data showing violent crime at its lowest level in three decades.

The White House confirmed the takeover would last 30 days, setting up a major confrontation with city leaders and sparking outrage from Democrats who accused the president of trampling on the capital’s political independence.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Trump described DC as “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world”, a statement flatly contradicted by crime statistics. The Metropolitan police department and the US attorney’s office reported in January that violent crime in 2024 had fallen by 35% compared with the previous year, marking the lowest rate in over 30 years.

Critics accused Trump of deliberately spreading a false narrative — similar to claims he made about Los Angeles — to justify the move. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House, branded the action an “unjustified power grab” and called Trump a “wannabe king”, vowing to stand with DC residents against what he called an illegitimate intervention.

The takeover comes as Trump faces a mounting wave of criticism on the international stage. On Sunday night, an Israeli airstrike on Gaza killed prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and four colleagues — Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa — while they sheltered in a tent outside al-Shifa hospital. Seven people died in total.

Hundreds of mourners marched through Gaza City on Monday, carrying the journalists’ bodies. The Committee to Protect Journalists described the war as the deadliest period for the profession since it began keeping records in 1992, with at least 186 journalists killed across Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon. The CPJ has accused Israel of directly targeting 20 journalists, a charge Israel denies. Experts warn any deliberate strike on civilians could amount to a war crime.

Meanwhile, Trump has nominated EJ Antoni, chief economist at the rightwing Heritage Foundation, as the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The post became vacant after Trump abruptly fired Erika McEntarfer earlier this month, accusing her — without evidence — of “faking” jobs data in the run-up to the 2024 election to help Kamala Harris. Economists have warned that political interference could undermine the agency’s global reputation for impartiality.

In foreign policy, Trump said he would meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss “land swapping” in relation to the Ukraine war, while expressing frustration with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He also extended a 90-day delay on sweeping tariffs against China just hours before the previous exemption was due to expire.

In domestic news, an explosion at a US Steel plant in Pennsylvania killed two workers and injured at least 10 others on Monday. Witnesses described the blast as sounding like thunder.

Further afield, Spain’s central government has intervened to overturn a local ban on religious gatherings in public sports facilities, calling the measure discriminatory against Muslims.

And in Vietnam, farmers whose land will be seized for a $1.5bn golf resort backed by the Trump family have reportedly been offered rice and cash compensation of as little as $12 per square metre. Thousands are set to be displaced by the Hung Yen province project.