Trump Claims He Won’t Be Stopped and Vows to Ignore Congress

President Donald Trump is daring Congress to challenge him, declaring he will keep the National Guard in Washington, D.C., beyond the 30-day limit set by law — and warning he’s willing to bypass lawmakers entirely if necessary.

“If it’s a national emergency, we can do it without Congress,” Trump told reporters Wednesday night during the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors reception. “I don’t want to call a national emergency… but if I have to, I will.”

The 79-year-old president invoked the rarely used Home Rule Act this week, seizing direct control over the city’s police force and ordering thousands of National Guard troops onto the streets. The move, Trump said, is part of an aggressive push to “clean up the capital” and reduce crime.

The Congressional Integrity Project blasted the deployment as “a dangerous power grab designed to distract from sinking poll numbers and the Epstein scandal.”

“Donald Trump steamrolled D.C.’s elected officials and is now threatening to militarize the capital indefinitely,” the group said in a statement. “Congressional Republicans face a stark choice: defend the Constitution or keep rolling over to Trump’s authoritarian demands.”

So far, few GOP lawmakers have publicly challenged him.

Trump’s focus on Washington’s streets reportedly intensified after a recent motorcade ride to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia. According to The Guardian, he became “visibly irritated” at the sight of homeless encampments along Constitution Avenue.

Within hours, Trump took to Truth Social, posting photos — believed to be taken from his own vehicle — of tents, trash, and one man sleeping in front of the American Institute of Pharmacy building.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” he wrote. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.”

A senior White House aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, told [Your News Outlet]: “He wants the capital to look like a showcase city, not a ‘crime-ridden embarrassment’ as he’s called it privately.”

Trump revealed he’s also drafting a sweeping crime bill that would first apply to D.C. but could be extended to “liberal-run cities like New York and Los Angeles.”

“We’re going to be asking for extensions on the Guard presence, long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days,” Trump said. “We need to fix this city once and for all.”

According to political analysts, such a bill would test the limits of presidential authority over local governments — a fight Trump appears eager to have.

“Trump thrives on confrontation,” political historian Mark Feldman told [Your News Outlet]. “In his mind, showing strength in D.C. sends a message to every mayor and governor in America: fall in line, or face federal muscle.”

Under current law, extending the National Guard’s deployment past 30 days requires congressional approval. Trump has signaled he might sidestep that rule by declaring a national emergency, a tactic he used during his first term to secure border wall funding.

If he follows through, constitutional scholars say it could spark one of the most significant power struggles between Congress and the presidency in decades.

“Whether you love him or hate him, this is the kind of move that tests our system of checks and balances,” said constitutional law expert Rachel McKee. “The real question is whether his own party will stop him — and history suggests they won’t.”

For now, troops remain stationed across the capital, their future as uncertain as the political storm brewing over the president’s latest show of force.