The Latest: Trump says he’s placing DC police under federal control and deploying National Guard

President Donald Trump said Monday he’s placing the Washington, D.C., police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to make the nation’s capital safer.

Trump has promised new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington, prompting the city’s mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets.

Ahead of a news conference, Trump said Monday on social media that the nation’s capital would be “LIBERATED today!” He said he would end the “days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people.”

Here’s the latest:

The president said he was open to meeting with Putin first and then meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or meeting with both together – though he didn’t say he’d push for a three-person meeting.

Trump said “President Putin invited me to get involved” and even said he thought it was very respectful that Putin is coming to U.S. territory for the meeting in Alaska, instead of insisting that Trump go to Russia.

He said he’ll tell Putin that it’s time to end Russia’s war with Ukraine.

“We’re looking at reclassification,” Trump said, adding “it’s early.”

He said he planned to make a determination in the coming weeks.

The president said marijuana “does bad for the children,” but that easing penalties associated with it is a “very complicated subject” because some people support doing so.

Trump said he’d “heard great things having to do with medical” use of marijuana.

A potential move to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I controlled substances to a Schedule III drug would make it significantly easier to buy and sell cannabis.

Trump said he hopes other cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, are watching the steps he’s announced in D.C. and would take steps to “self-clean up.”

He said that if needed, the administration would take similar steps in other cities and criticized their leadership at the local and state levels.

In addition, Trump also said “we will bring in the military if it’s needed” but added “I don’t think we’ll need it.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth compared sending the Guard into the nation’s capital to deployments to the southern U.S. border and Los Angeles.

“We will work alongside all D.C. police and federal law enforcement,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth said the D.C. National Guard will be “flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week.”

He also said the Pentagon was “prepared to bring in other National Guard units, other specialized units.”

The president said he signed an executive order and presidential memorandum in the Oval Office before holding his news conference.

One executive order invoked presidential powers under the Home Rule Act to take over Washington’s police force.

He also signed what the administration called statutorily required notification letters to DC Mayor Bowser and relevant congressional leaders.

Trump also signed a presidential memorandum directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deploy the National Guard in the nation’s capital.

The polarizing Food and Drug Administration official is getting his job back less than two weeks after being pressured to step down at the urging of conservative activists.

Dr. Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of FDA’s center for vaccines and biotech therapies, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

Prasad left the agency last month after drawing ire of right-wing activists, including Laura Loomer, who flagged his past statements criticizing President Trump.

He was also targeted by biotech executives and patient groups for briefly halting shipments of a therapy for muscular dystrophy, due to safety concerns.

But Prasad has also had the backing of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Under Prasad, the FDA restricted the approvals of two new COVID shots from vaccine makers Novavax and Moderna.

Trump complained about potholes and graffiti in the city and said it was “embarrassing.”

“This is a tragic emergency. And it’s embarrassing for me to be up here,” Trump said. “I don’t like being up here talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was, with graffiti all over the walls.”

Trump also said he would bring in the military if needed.

“This is not a big area,” Trump said. “What you need is rules and regulations, and you need the right people to implement them.”

In a news conference, Trump said he’ll place the D.C. police department under federal control and deploy the National Guard.

Trump said he wants to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor.” The Democratic mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, has noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023.

Trump cited a number of recent high-profile incidents, including the killing of a 21-year-old Congressional intern and the beating of a DOGE staffer during an attempted carjacking.

“This is liberation day in D.C. and we’re going to take our Capitol back,” the president said.

Trump said he would start with D.C., but the wider crackdown on crime would go further to other Americans.

“We’re going to clean it up real quick, very quickly,” he said.

The top Democrat on a House panel focusing on competition with China raised concerns over the reported agreement that the Trump administration is to get a 15% cut from U.S. chips sales in China in exchange of granting export licenses, calling it “a dangerous misuse of export controls that undermines our national security.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, said he would seek answers about the legal basis for this arrangement and demand full transparency from the administration.

“Our export control regime must be based on genuine security considerations, not creative taxation schemes disguised as national security policy,” he said. “Chip export controls aren’t bargaining chips, and they’re not casino chips either. We shouldn’t be gambling with our national security to raise revenue.”

The U.S. has placed export controls on most powerful U.S. computing chips, banning their sales in China to prevent them from being used to boost China’s military capabilities.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the NATO secretary general and several European leaders to a virtual meeting Wednesday ahead of the Trump-Putin summit later this week.

The German chancellery said in a statement Monday that the talks would focus on “the current situation in Ukraine with a view to the planned meeting between U.S. President Trump and Russian President Putin.”

It said the talks will focus on “further options for action to put pressure on Russia” as well as “preparations for possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security.”

Europeans and Ukrainians so far are not invited to the summit Friday in Alaska.

Transcripts of the secret grand jury testimony that led to the sex trafficking indictment of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell won’t be released, a judge decided Monday.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written ruling that the government had suggested the materials could be released publicly “casually or promiscuously,” which would risk “unraveling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised” and eroding confidence by persons called to testify before future grand juries.

“And it is no answer to argue that releasing the grand jury materials, because they are redundant of the evidence at Maxwell’s trial, would be innocuous. The same could be said for almost any grand jury testimony, by summary witnesses or others, given in support of charges that later proceeded to trial,” he added.

About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of the Trump administration’s effort to combat on crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday.

More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Marshals Service are also contributing officers.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters. The Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment Monday morning.

The White House last week announced plans for an increased presence of federal law enforcement in Washington as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime.

– Alanna Durkin Richer

But the Europeans concede that Moscow is unlikely to give up control of Ukrainian land it holds.

Ahead of the summit in Alaska on Friday, President Trump suggested that a peace deal could include “some swapping of territories,” but the Europeans see no sign that Russia will offer anything to swap. Europeans and Ukrainians so far are not invited to the summit.

European Union foreign ministers are meeting on Monday following talks on Ukraine among U.S. and European security advisors over the weekend. They are wary that President Vladimir Putin will try to claim a political victory by portraying Ukraine as inflexible.

The only thing on Trump’s schedule today is a news conference at 10 a.m., where he’s expected to announce plans to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington.

Trump is promising new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington, prompting the city’s mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets in the nation’s capital.

Trump wrote in a social media post that he would hold a White House news conference on Monday to discuss his plans to make the District of Columbia “safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote Sunday. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”

Last week, the Republican president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option “to extend as needed.”

Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was “ridiculous” and the city was “unsafe,” after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency.