CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig on Tuesday outlined President Donald Trump’s legal authority to federally take over Washington, D.C., to combat crime.

Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act on Monday, which grants the president the authority to direct the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for federal purposes during emergency situations. Honig stated on “CNN News Central” that Trump “absolutely does have the legal authority” to deploy the National Guard into the nation’s capital, though the question still looms on whether there is an emergency in D.C. that justifies the federal takeover.

“Part of it definitely [is legal] and part of it I think will be contested in court. So first of all, the president absolutely does have the legal authority to activate the National Guard in Washington, D.C. Now that’s unique, because in all the other states, the governor controls the National Guard except for in narrow emergency circumstances,” Honig said. “So yes, the president can deploy the National Guard in D.C. But then there’s a second question about The Home Rule Act that you just mentioned and that does give the president the authority to federalize and take over the Metro D.C. Police Force, but only if there’s an emergency and only for a maximum of 30 days.”

“So, on that latter count, it would not surprise me that if as soon as today, we saw some sort of lawsuit challenging his authority [by] arguing, ‘there’s not actually an emergency and the president has overstepped his ability here,’” Honig continued.

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The federal government has been permitted to use the National Guard for “law enforcement functions” in D.C. since the 1980s, which includes traffic stops and search warrants, Honig explained.

“D.C. is really unique here. The president has a lot of authority and he seemingly is within his constitutional authority [to] deploy the National Guard and [to] use them for law enforcement functions inside the District of Columbia,” Honig continued.

Trump took this action to “reestablish law and order and safety” in D.C. by combating violent crime. In 2025 alone, two Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot outside of the Capital Jewish Museum on May 22, a gang-related shooting killed 21-year-old congressional intern near a Metro station and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls,” got severely beaten after he tried to stop a carjacking.

City officials in D.C. have raged at Trump’s action and claimed that crime has actually decreased by 35% since 2024. However, the MPD’s crime data excludes aggravated assault and felony assault without the use of weapons, despite D.C. law describing them as violent offenses causing bodily injury.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) data, which includes aggravated and felony assaults, shows that the number of violent offenses in D.C. has only dropped by 10% since 2024 and remained slightly higher than in 2018. Homicides have also remained above pre-pandemic levels with the exception of 2021, a year when D.C. submitted incomplete data, according to Axios.

Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser called for the nation’s capital’s statehood on Monday in response to Trump’s action.

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