President Trump has marshalled all the law enforcement resources at his command in Washington, D.C., ordering them to patrol the streets and put an end to the squalor and lawlessness of America’s capital city. So far, it’s working.

Invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973, the president took control of Washington’s police department for 30 days. He also deployed 800 members D.C.’s National Guard, which is under his direct command, and over 500 officers from multiple federal law enforcement agencies. Late last week, the Republican governors of West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio pledged more guardsmen from their state forces. The GOP governors of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana followed suit on Monday, in total adding more than 1,100 guardsmen to the capital’s supplemental federal policing.

Despite the federal deployments taking some days to reach full capacity, they have gone a long way toward accomplishing their mission. On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X that 465 criminal suspects have been arrested in the seven days since the operation began, more than half of whom were taken in high-crime neighborhoods. That figure includes 68 suspects taken into custody on Saturday night alone.

Trump said his intention is to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” Under his direction, Bondi has ended Washington’s “sanctuary city” policies and directed D.C.’s police department to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), some of whose officials have been deployed in the capital.

“This is what happens when you actually enforce the law,” Bondi wrote in a post on X over the weekend. “We’re taking back our Nation’s Capital!” she added, echoing Trump’s frequent statements about cleaning up Washington. “Together, we will make D.C. Beautiful & Safe Again.”

In a more detailed post earlier on Saturday, Bondi announced that those arrested included two homicide suspects, two suspected sexual predators, 17 suspected drug traffickers, and 39 arrested for gun crimes. In the first week, federal authorities reportedly apprehended 160 illegal aliens, in part thanks to ICE’s reinforcement of police patrols and checkpoints. A number of those arrested are alleged to have gang ties, including one with MS-13, and outstanding convictions or warrants for other crimes, including violent offenses. Bondi has confirmed that an additional 21 suspected gun criminals were arrested during the weekend’s dragnet, with more following on Monday.

Administration and other sources have confirmed that the National Guard forces are, at least for now, unarmed and not actively arresting suspects—leaving those duties to D.C.’s federalized police force and cooperating federal law enforcement. The Guard is there to provide support for the arresting authorities, to protect federal property, and to create deterrence. While it is difficult to quantify deterrent value, the D.C. Police Union, which supported Trump’s initiative, claimed that violent crime has declined by 22 percent since operations began, with robberies falling by 46 percent. National Guard and other supplemental forces are visible enough to have encountered both organized and impromptu protests, including cases of interference with their operations and direct assaults. Last week, the latter category included former Justice Department attorney Sean Charles Dunn, who was arrested and subsequently fired from his job after throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent, an act possibly constituting felony assault against a federal officer.

D.C.’s newly confirmed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who warned criminals in a Washington Post op-ed that “we will identify you, prosecute you and convict you,” is lobbying the D.C. city council to scale back extant local laws allowing for reduced prosecutions and light sentencing. In a recent outrage, this included a probationary sentence for 19-year-old gunman Javarry Peaks, who pleaded guilty to shooting another man on a city Metrobus in March 2025. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is instituting a zero-tolerance policy for encampments on National Park Service property and allowing U.S. Park Police officers, some of whom were mobilized by Trump’s order, to pursue suspects, an action for which they were not previously authorized.

Facing a legal challenge to the appointment of Drug Enforcement Agency Chief Terry Cole as D.C.’s “emergency” police commissioner, the administration has backed off on that measure. But, despite leveling some criticism, D.C.’s local authorities are for the most part going along with what they have acknowledged to be lawful measures taken by the president. In addition to supplemental policing, this includes the removal of the public nuisance of homeless encampments, which are in many cases inhabited by individuals suffering from addiction, substance abuse, and psychological problems. According to the White House, more than 40 such encampments have been removed since operations began last Monday, following the sporadic removal of dozens of others since Trump first ordered their removal by city authorities in March.

Numerous social media videos have documented the removals, while, according to The New York Times, advocacy and support services have registered significantly higher than normal numbers of people either at their doors, or leaving town. Graffiti, a perennial problem in the city, is also being tackled, with dozens of unaddressed sites being cleaned up. The Justice Department has announced that it will pursue severe penalties—including up to a year in jail and fines of up to $100,000—for graffiti on or damage to federal property.

Even as critics caterwaul—by turns contradictorily calling Trump’s order either a fascist takeover of the capital or an unnecessary distraction from other issues they believe to be more pressing—the administration shows no sign of backing down. “We are just getting started,” Bondi said in her Tuesday X post, one day after she pledged that her efforts “are not slowing down.” Today she announced that the total number of arrests exceeded 550. Other Democrat-led disaster cities should be so fortunate.