Vice President JD Vance eats a Shake Shack hamburger with members of the National Guard at Union Station in Washington, D.C., Aug. 20, 2025. (Al Drago/pool/AFP via Getty Images)
"Right here in Union Station, you have vagrants, you have drug addicts, you have the chronically homeless, you have the mentally ill who harass, who threatened violence, who attacked families," Vance said. "And they've done it for far too long. This should be a monument to American greatness."
The 1973 Home Rule Act permits a temporary federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department for emergency situations up to 30 days. However, after that time frame, Congress must intervene and sign off on any extensions. No such limitations exist for D.C. National Guard troops, however, in the Home Rule Act.
On Aug. 13, Trump said that the administration’s goal was to ramp down crime quickly, but signaled that "we're going to want extensions."
When asked if extensions were on the table, Vance said that Trump would reevaluate, depending on how much progress occurs in the next several weeks.
TRUMP VOWED DC TAKEOVER MULTIPLE TIMES ON 2024 CAMPAIGN TRAIL: 'HE'S KEEPING HIS PROMISE'
President Donald Trump speaks to the press about deploying federal law enforcement agents in Washington to bolster the local police presence. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
"By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law," Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in a Friday X post. "This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it."
In addition to the DC National Guard, National Guard troops from Ohio, West Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee are participating in the Trump administration’s crackdown in Washington, and approximately 1,300 have already arrived in the nation’s capital.
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vance-says-national-guard-busting-a-washington-floats-mission-extension