Trump Threatens to Declare New National Emergency

President Donald Trump is once again threatening to use sweeping emergency powers — this time against the nation’s capital.

In a 1 a.m. Truth Social post, the 79-year-old president lashed out at Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser after she formally cut off cooperation between the city’s police force and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“Under pressure from the Radical Left Democrats, Mayor Muriel Bowser…informed the Federal Government that the Metropolitan Police Department will no longer cooperate with ICE,” Trump wrote, claiming that Bowser had allowed the city to be “taken over by violent criminals.” He then vowed: “I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”

The threat marks a new low in Trump’s ongoing war with the district’s leadership — a city that voted overwhelmingly against him in both 2016 and 2020, and again in 2024.

Bowser, who has clashed repeatedly with Trump since his return to power, said her decision reflects the city’s independence.

“Immigration enforcement is not what MPD does, and with the end of the emergency, it won’t be what MPD does,” she said last week. Her office has accused Trump of using federal troops and ICE agents as political props in his campaign to paint urban centers as lawless.

For weeks, D.C. residents have endured heavily armed ICE raids and National Guard patrols, which critics say created fear without addressing root causes of crime.

Local activist James Richardson told reporters: “It feels like Trump is trying to occupy our city. This isn’t safety. This is intimidation.”

In his overnight tirade, Trump bizarrely credited himself for crime reductions in Memphis — despite never deploying troops there. He also insisted that D.C. had gone from “one of the most dangerous” cities in the world to “virtually NO CRIME” in just weeks under his “auspices.”

Experts say the data doesn’t support him. Crime in D.C. had already been trending down since late 2024, according to FBI statistics, and there has been no evidence that ICE raids have significantly reduced violence.

“Trump is playing politics with public safety,” Georgetown professor Maria Torres told MSNBC. “This is about flexing authoritarian muscle, not protecting communities.”

This isn’t the first time Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency for political gain. In his first term, he bypassed Congress by declaring one to redirect Pentagon money to build sections of his border wall — a move courts later found unconstitutional.

Democrats warn he’s preparing to repeat the same playbook. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) blasted the president on Sunday night: “Every time Trump doesn’t get his way, he threatens to declare an ‘emergency.’ This is not leadership. It’s the behavior of an autocrat.”

Protests have flared outside Trump’s public appearances in D.C., including a dinner at Joe’s Seafood last week that was interrupted by chants of “Not Our President” and “Hands Off D.C.”

With more than 700,000 residents caught in the middle, the standoff has raised fears of another summer of unrest.

Bowser has promised to push forward with what she called a “local framework for exiting the emergency,” including her Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center — a city-led response plan designed to restore control without federal interference.

But Trump’s warning leaves Washington uncertain. “Don’t worry, I am with you,” the president insisted to businesses and residents. Yet many in D.C. worry his midnight meltdowns are setting the stage for another clash over democracy itself.