In today's issue:

▪ Trump: Cities beyond DC could see federal policing

▪ US extends China tariff deadline

▪ Democrats allege DOJ, FBI weaponization

▪ Zelensky vies for influence at Trump-Putin summit

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President Trump is looking beyond the nation’s capital to deploy federal crime-fighting muscle and the National Guard to prominent cities run by Democrats, he said on Monday.

“Other cities are hopefully watching,” the president said after declaring a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C.

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and members of the D.C. City Council in a separate statement disputed Trump’s descriptions of out-of-control violent crime while arguing the president’s actions are unprecedented and unnecessary.

“I’m going to work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster. Let me put it that way,” the mayor told reporters on Monday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Trump’s scathing crime narrative a “political ploy.” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) said the president is “testing the limits of his power.” The Democratic Mayors Association accused Trump of a “charade,” arguing that “crime is down in most major cities.”

During a lengthy press conference, Trump said the Justice Department is now in charge of the Metropolitan Police Department in the nation’s capital and he vowed to deploy 800 National Guard members within a city he called “dirty, disgusting” and full of “drugged-out maniacs.”

D.C. residents number just 700,000, but the city played host to a record 27 million visitors last year.

The president, reprising his longtime narrative that cities and states governed by Democrats are poorly served and in danger, called out Chicago and Los Angeles, while also mentioning New York City, his hometown. All are led by Democratic mayors in states with prominent Democratic governors, several of whom are sizing up potential presidential bids in 2028.

Trump says federal crime fighting in Washington could be a model for his administration to take similar action elsewhere. He previously deployed federal troops to Los Angeles in June to bolster immigration enforcement before removing them last month.

His decision at the time to ignore California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections to active-duty Marines mobilized on domestic soil is the subject of a federal appeals court trial this week in San Francisco as part of a challenge filed by the state. Newsom, who is term-limited and taking a leadership role for Democrats, has said a race for the White House in 2028 could “unfold.” sc

Trump argues he has the presidential authority to declare public safety emergencies tied to assertions of crime and other hazards that permit him to temporarily empower federal law enforcement to direct and assist city policing.

The president, who criticized Democrats in 2020 for backing proposals to defund police in reaction to the murder of George Floyd, says he has broad public support for his crime-fighting moves. In the summer of 2020, Trump deployed more than 5,000 National Guard troops to Washington to crack down on mostly peaceful demonstrators pushing for racial justice and some looters.

Democratic candidates largely retreated from antipolice rhetoric by 2022 as unpopular with voters and a political boost to the GOP. Trump favors more arrests in major urban settings and tougher prosecutions while also urging cities to remove homeless encampments on public property.

“This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city’s local leadership. The radical-left City Council adopted no-cash bail,” Trump said Monday, referring to criminal justice reforms in Washington, Illinois and New York City adopted years ago to reduce jail populations among some defendants who would otherwise remain behind bars because they could not afford to post a bond.

“We’re going to change no-cash bail. We’re going to change the statute and get rid of some of the other things, and we’ll count on the Republicans in Congress and Senate to vote,” Trump said. “We have the majority, so we’ll vote.”

Washington, however, has a unique and complicated status in the United States as a congressionally established federal district with a thin legal shield for home rule, calling into question the president’s assertion that a federal crackdown in the nation’s capital can serve as a template for crime fighting in other major cities.

“One of the most important bulwarks against authoritarian........

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