Trump police takeover will create ‘immediate, devastating, and irreparable harm’ for DC, federal lawsuit says
According to the federal lawsuit filed by the DC government today, the Trump administration has engaged in “a brazen usurpation of the District’s authority over its own government”.
The suit says that the president’s move to federalise the DC police, and attorney general Pam Bondi’s order to install DEA administrator Terry Cole as “emergency police commissioner”, both “exceed the narrow delegation that Congress granted the President in Section 740”.
A reminder, earlier this week the president invoked Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act, which grants him a 30-day period to control the district’s local law enforcement if he declares a safety emergency. To get an extension, the president would need Congress’s approval.
The president has said that violent crime in DC – which the justice department says experienced a 30-year low in 2024 – is “the worst it’s ever been”.
The lawsuit also states that Section 740 only requires that the DC mayor “provide services” of the Metropolitan police department (MPD) to federal government, but “does not permit the President to seize control of MPD. Nor does it authorize the President to direct MPD in the policing of local crime.”
Key events
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered outside the Metropolitan police headquarters in Washington DC, here are some pictures:
David Smith
in Anchorage, Alaska
I am now sitting in a press tent where TVs are showing what is presumably the stage for a post-summit press conference.
The stage has a blue backdrop with the words “pursuing peace” printed in white several times. There are two lecterns with microphones on a beige floor as well as US and Russian flags. Staff are carrying out sound checks.
Redistricting fight continues as Texas governor Abbott calls second special legislative session
As we previewed earlier, Texas governor Greg Abbott called a second special legislative session this afternoon, in an effort to hike pressure on Democratic lawmakers who have fled the state to stymie Republican plans to redraw political maps at the behest of Donald Trump.
Trump wants to use redistricting to help maintain the GOP’s slim control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections, but the plan has sparked strong opposition from Democrats who have threatened to retaliate.
Abbott said in a written statement that the second session would begin at noon local time today and that producing new maps that could give Republicans five more seats in Congress was on the agenda.
Yesterday, California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a redistricting plan in his state that he says would give Democrats there five more Congressional seats, possibly offsetting Republican gains in Texas.
Democratic members of the Texas House left the state earlier this month to deny Republicans the quorum needed to vote on legislation. Republicans have maintained control over Texas politics for more than two decades, and Democrats in the state have broken quorum several times, trying mostly in vain to halt deeply conservative legislation.
Abbott said that redistricting plans, legislation to increase flash flood safety in the wake of devastating flooding last month, and other legislative work remains undone because Democrats had refused to show up.
“We will not back down from this fight,” Abbott said. “That’s why I am calling them back today to finish the job.”
Many of the more than 50 Texas Democrats who fled the state have been staying in Illinois, out of reach of civil arrest warrants that could be acted on within Texas.
When the Democrats might return remains unknown.
The Texas House Democrats said in a written statement yesterday that they will only return to Texas if their state’s special legislation is ended and once California’s redistricting maps were introduced.
Congressional Democrats introduce resolution to end Trump’s ‘raw power grab’ in DC
House and Senate Democrats introduced a joint resolution today to terminate Trump’s federalization of the DC Metropolitan Police Department.
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the nonvoting delegate from the District of Columbia, and representative Robert Garcia of California are leading the effort in the House, while senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland introduced the legislation in the Senate.
The resolution, which has little chance of advancing under the Republican-controlled Congress, says the president “has failed to identify special conditions of an emergency nature that compel the use of the Metropolitan Police Department for Federal purposes in the District of Columbia”.
Under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, a president can order DC’s mayor to give him temporary control of the police, but Congress can terminate that authority.
In their resolutions, the lawmakers cite statistics showing that violent crime is at a 30-year low in DC as evidence that there is no emergency to justify the president’s actions.
“The only emergency here is a lawless president experiencing a growing public relations emergency because of his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and his stubborn refusal to release the Epstein file despite his promise to do so,” said Raskin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee.
“Trump was AWOL when the District of Columbia actually needed support from the National Guard to protect it from an insurrectionist mob on January 6,” Van Hollen said.
He called Trump’s moves “an abuse of power” and a “raw power grab”. “It is a direct attack on the ability of the people of the District of Columbia to govern their own affairs,” he said.
David Smith
in Anchorage, Alaska
Greetings from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a cold war-era military installation on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska, that will play host to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin today.
I am among an estimated 700 journalists from all over the world. We were greeted at the Anchorage international airport by the sight of a majestic brown bear slain by Governor Mike Dunleavy and displayed as a trophy in a glass case.
The media gathered downtown at 5.30am local time today and were bused to the air force base under a big sky with picturesque mountains. The airbase is like a small city with housing, children’s playgrounds, nondescript three-storey lodgings, a church with stained glass windows and great grassy expanses. The temperature is a crisp 50F.
Earlier, Reuters reported: “The Kremlin press pool was housed in an Alaska Airlines Center, where a semi-open-plan room was subdivided by partitions and some reporters were seen making their own camp-style beds. They were fed for free at a nearby university campus, Russian reporters said.”
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the cold war. It continues to play a role today, as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into US airspace. Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in a sweatshirt with “CCCP” – the Russian letters for USSR – across the front.
Today’s meeting could prove a win-win for the two leaders. Putin, an alleged war criminal who had been an international pariah, gets to meet the US president on American soil. Trump, for his part, gets to play global statesman in a massive media spectacle where no one is talking about Jeffrey Epstein (well, almost no one).
Trump says he wants ‘to see a ceasefire rapidly’, adding he’s ‘not going to be happy if it’s not today’
Donald Trump was asked earlier what would make his summit with Vladimir Putin a success. He told reporters aboard Air Force One:
I can’t tell you that.
I don’t know it’s there’s nothing set in stone. I want certain things. I want to see a ceasefire.
This is not to do with Europe. Europe’s not telling me what to do, but they’re going to be involved in the process, obviously, as well Zelenskyy, but I want to see a ceasefire rapidly.
I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today. Everyone said it can’t be today, but I’m just saying I want the killing to stop.
I’m in this to stop the killing. You know, we’re not putting up any money. We’re making money. They’re buying our weapons, and we’re sending them to Nato, and Nato is sending us big, beautiful checks.
But that I don’t care about … But what I do care about is they lost last week 7011 people, almost all soldiers; 36 people in a town which got hit by a missile.
Over 7,000 soldiers. It’s crazy.
You can watch the clip here.
Trump says he ‘would walk’ if Putin meeting doesn’t go well
Donald Trump has told Fox News’s Bret Baier that if his meeting with Vladimir Putin doesn’t go well today, he would walk.
“We’re going for a meeting with President Putin in Alaska. And I think it’s going to work out very well, and if it doesn’t I’m going to head back home real fast,” Trump said.
Asked by Baier if that means he would walk if it doesn’t go well, the president replied: “I would walk, yeah.”
Trump earlier confirmed his threat of “severe” consequences for Russia if it fails to show willingness to seriously talk about the end of war in Ukraine.
He told reporters on Air Force One:
Economically severe. It will be very severe. I’m not doing this for my health, okay, I don’t need it. I’d like to focus on our country, but I’m doing this to save a lot of lives. Yeah, very severe.
US aid cuts to Ukraine raise risk of waste and fraud, say watchdogs
USAID is concerned that the Trump administration’s cancellation of independent aid monitoring contracts for Ukraine has increased the risk of waste, fraud and abuse, according to three US watchdog agencies.
“The termination of third-party monitoring contracts has further limited USAID’s ability to oversee programs,” the state department, Pentagon and USAID inspectors general said in a report issued today.
The US Agency for International Development was the main American agency that administered civilian foreign aid for more than 60 years. It is being dismantled by the Trump administration – which claims to be tackling waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending – and is scheduled to be closed on 2 September.
The three inspectors general submit quarterly reports to Congress on their oversight of US civilian support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
In January, Donald Trump froze all US foreign assistance programs pending a review of their alignment with his “America first” policies, and ordered the dismantling of USAID, which stopped disbursing funds in July.
As part of this decision, Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” oversaw the termination of 83% of USAID programs, including some that supported Ukraine.
The watchdogs’ report said that USAID managed $30.2bn in direct support for the Ukrainian government’s budget, and provided a guarantee that secured a $20bn loan for Kyiv.
It said that in the three months ending 31 June, 25 civilian aid programs for Ukraine were terminated, while 29 active programs, five under stop-work orders and four of unknown status were transferred to the state department.
The terminated programs included contracts with third parties that provided independent tracking of USAID funds to ensure that they were spent as intended and that helped “inform both current and future decision-making”, it said.
“USAID said that without independent monitoring, it cannot verify that programs are being implemented in line with award terms, increasing the risk of waste, fraud and abuse,” the report said.
This is especially true in conflict-affected areas “where there is a heightened potential for diversion of funds”, it warned.
White House defends federal takeover of police in Washington
A federal judge will hold a hearing today on the lawsuit filed by the DC government – challenging the Trump administration’s federal takeover of the DC, including Pam Bondi’s move to install the DEA chief Terry Cole as “emergency police commissioner”. Judge Ana Reyes will hold today’s hearing at 2pm ET.
In response to the lawsuit, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the following in a statement to the Guardian:
The Trump Administration has the lawful authority to assert control over the D.C. Police, which is necessary due to the emergency that has arisen in our Nation’s Capital as a result of failed leadership. The Democrats’ efforts to stifle this tremendous progress are par for the course for the Defund the Police, Criminals-First Democrat Party.
White House says 33 arrested in Thursday night operations in DC
A White House official tells the Guardian that 33 people were arrested on Thursday night by federal law enforcement. Almost half of these arrests were undocumented immigrants, according to the official.
The White House also said that 1,750 officers took part in Thursday’s operations.
Yesterday, the Pentagon said that all 800 national guard troops had been mobilized, with about 200 soldiers at a time taking turns to assist federal agents and the Metropolitan police department (MPD). The national guard troops are not making arrests at this time, but protecting federal property and aiding law enforcement.
The MPD has not yet provided the number of arrests made by local police on Thursday.
Hillary Clinton would consider nominating Trump for Nobel peace prize if he brokers successful peace deal
As the president prepares for his pivotal meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, he’s received an unlikely vote of confidence from a longstanding rival.
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton – also the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee – said in a podcast interview released today that she would consider nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel peace prize if he could successfully broker a peace deal with the Kremlin leader that doesn’t put Ukraine “in a position where it had to concede its territory to the aggressor”.
Clinton added some crucial caveats while speaking on the Raging Moderates podcast. She said that any potential award endorsement would require Trump to do the following:
Make it clear that there must be a ceasefire, there will be no exchange of territory, and that over a period of time Putin should be actually withdrawing from the territory that he has seized, in order to demonstrate his good-faith efforts, let us say, not to threaten European security.
If Trump were “the architect” of that kind of deal, Clinton said she would nominate him for a Nobel peace prize.
“My goal here is not to allow capitulation to Putin, aided and abetted by the United States,” she added.
This comes after Trump reportedly cold-called Norway’s finance minister last month to ask about a nomination for the Nobel peace prize, according to Norwegian press.
Texas house ends special session, as Democrats again break quorum
With only 95 of the 100 representatives needed to achieve quorum, the Texas house has moved to end the August special session four days early.
House speaker Dustin Burrows told members to “not go very far, as I believe our governor will be calling us back for another special session”, referring to Greg Abbott’s plans to immediately call a second session. Local reports say the next session will begin at noon local time today.
For their part, Texas house Democrats have said they would return as long as the first special session adjourned on Friday, and California introduced its own new congressional map to offset the gains by Republicans. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, announced on Thursday that its maps would be coming shortly.
DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, confirmed that she will be back in DC today, after travelling to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday to pick her daughter up from summer camp.
In a post on X, Bowser clarified her schedule, after Donald Trump posted a local report which said Bowser had “left town” for the Massachusetts island.
“I am in constant contact with my senior team and have been in constant consultation with our partners throughout a short swing out of the District,” she wrote.
Rosalind Adams
When Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of the Metropolitan police department in Washington DC on Monday, he left room for the possibility of making a similar move in other cities across the US, alluding to their high crime rates.
“You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let it happen, we’re not going to lose our cities.”
But both experts and elected officials have been quick to counter Trump’s claims, pointing out how major cities are in fact experiencing dramatic decreases in violent crime rates since they peaked during the pandemic.
“Every category of crime and every population group that the FBI covers is reporting a drop pretty much nationwide,” said Jeff Asher, an analyst who studies criminal justice data, adding that there was no disparity in the trend between red and blue cities or states.
The downward trend has been consistent nationally since around 2022, as the country began to recover from the pandemic, experts said.
“It’s clear that a lot of what we saw during the Covid-19 era has been reversed,” said Ames Grawert, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice who researches crime trends.
While it’s impossible to isolate the exact causes of the spike in crime during the pandemic, several experts point to the collapse of social services as one cause. Since then, state and federal agencies poured money into communities for projects like gun violence prevention programs as well as more streetlights on local roads.
Trump confirms plans for ‘economically severe’ sanctions if Russia doesn’t move on Ukraine
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is bringing you the latest as Donald Trump heads to Alaska to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin today. It’s hard to emphasise the stakes of this summit, particularly as the world watches.
Jakub reports that the president wrapped a gaggle with the press onboard Air Force One a short while ago.
A few of the key lines here:
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On continuing Russian attacks on Ukraine, Trump says he thinks Putin “is trying to set a stage” and “in his mind that helps him make a better deal”. But the president says “it actually hurts him, and I will be talking to him about it”.
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Trump also affirms his chief aim of today’s meeting: “I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I’m here to get them at a table.”
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Trump also confirms his earlier threat of “severe” consequences for Russia if it fails to show willingness to seriously talk about the end of war in Ukraine: “Economically severe. It will be very severe. I’m not doing this for my health, OK, I don’t need it. I’d like to focus on our country, but I’m doing this to save a lot of lives.”
Late yesterday, DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, hit back against Pam Bondi’s move to put DEA chief Terry Cole in charge of the capital’s police department. In a post on X, Bowser wrote: “There is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”
She also said that her office have “followed the law” and provided the services of the DC police at the request of the president, as outlined in Section 740 of the Home Rule Act.
Bowser also reposted a letter from DC attorney general Brian Schwalb, addressed to the mayor, which said that Bondi’s order is “unlawful” and Bowser is “not legally obligated to follow it”.
Trump police takeover will create ‘immediate, devastating, and irreparable harm’ for DC, federal lawsuit says
According to the federal lawsuit filed by the DC government today, the Trump administration has engaged in “a brazen usurpation of the District’s authority over its own government”.
The suit says that the president’s move to federalise the DC police, and attorney general Pam Bondi’s order to install DEA administrator Terry Cole as “emergency police commissioner”, both “exceed the narrow delegation that Congress granted the President in Section 740”.
A reminder, earlier this week the president invoked Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act, which grants him a 30-day period to control the district’s local law enforcement if he declares a safety emergency. To get an extension, the president would need Congress’s approval.
The president has said that violent crime in DC – which the justice department says experienced a 30-year low in 2024 – is “the worst it’s ever been”.
The lawsuit also states that Section 740 only requires that the DC mayor “provide services” of the Metropolitan police department (MPD) to federal government, but “does not permit the President to seize control of MPD. Nor does it authorize the President to direct MPD in the policing of local crime.”
A recap of overnight events in DC
As the federal takeover of the DC police and deployment of national guard troops entered its fourth night, here’s a recap of what happened overnight.
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The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, ended DC’s “sanctuary policies”. In a directive signed yesterday, she rescinded previous orders – including one from the DC police chief, Pamela Smith – that Bondi’s office says “limited” the Metropolitan police department (MPD) from working with federal officers. Bondi has now scrapped rules which prevent DC police from arresting people “solely for federal immigration warrants” and “restricted certain information from being shared with federal authorities,” a justice department spokesperson said.
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Bondi also stripped power away from Smith, the police chief, and appointed Terry Cole – who leads the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – as “emergency police commissioner”. According to her order, the MPD “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole” before issuing any further directives.
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And today, the DC government announced it is suing the Trump administration for its takeover of the DC police. The district’s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, wrote: “Section 740 of the Home Rule Act permits the President to request MPD’s services … Even when Section 740 is lawfully invoked, the Home Rule Act keeps operational control of MPD with the Mayor and Chief, and the President must request MPD services through the Mayor.” He added that the federal government’s actions are “brazenly unlawful” and “infringe on the District’s right to self-governance”.
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Meanwhile, federal law enforcement began conducting sweeps of homeless encampments. Crews tore down a major encampment near the Kennedy Center on Thursday, removing residents and clearing out the remaining encampments across the city. My colleague Kirstin Garriss has more on the latest here.
‘We can’t let a systematic assault on democracy just happen,’ Obama says as he praises Texas Democrats
Former president Barack Obama has praised Texas Democrats for protesting against the state’s gerrymandered GOP-drawn congressional maps by breaking quorum, according to a report from ABC News.
ABC obtained footage of a Zoom meeting on Thursday in which Obama addressed the legislators.
“We can’t let a systematic assault on democracy just happen and stand by and so because of your actions, because of your courage, what you’ve seen is California responding, other states looking at what they can do to offset this mid-decade gerrymandering,” he said.
In the meeting, Obama also said that the Democrats – who left the state capital almost two weeks ago – “helped to lead what is going to be a long struggle”.
He added:
It’s not going to be resolved right away, and it’s going to require, ultimately, the American people understanding the stakes and realizing that we cannot take our freedoms and our democracy for granted. You’ve helped set the tone for that, and I’m grateful for it.
In a statement to ABC News, Texas house minority leader Gene Wu said Obama’s message to the Democrats is “proof that when they stand up and fight back, we don’t stand alone”.
Wu added that “President Obama’s support shows the whole country is watching – and Texas house Democrats won’t be silenced by bullies”.
This comes as Texas Democrats also said they are prepared to return to the state under certain conditions, ending their efforts to block Republicans from passing a new map that would add five GOP seats.
The lawmakers said they would return as long as the legislature ends its first special session on Friday, which Republicans have said they plan to do. However, Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, has said he will immediately call another special session.