Why Trump can't mistreat other cities like DC

Time - Trump’s authority to take over local police forces and send troops to patrol streets beyond Washington, D.C. is severely limited by law, legal experts say, since most cities fall under state jurisdiction where governors control the National Guard and local law enforcement. The nation’s capital is not a state, giving the President a rare ability to deploy the National Guard and assume control of its police during declared emergencies.

In other cities, the President cannot unilaterally commandeer police departments or deploy federal troops for ordinary law enforcement without state approval or a declared federal emergency, says Meryl Chertoff, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School. 

“It was contemplated by the Founders that the states would retain a certain degree of autonomy and a certain degree of individuation,” Chertoff says. “Generally, the justification for the federal government to get involved is because either there's a commerce issue or a foreign policy issue that is national in scope."

In Washington, D.C., Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to take control of the city’s police during an emergency for up to 30 days. His declaration of the situation as a public safety emergency drew criticism from local officials, as violent crime in the city is at a 30-year-low. Attorney General Pam Bondi was named to oversee the Metropolitan Police Department, while 800 National Guard troops were deployed to patrol the streets. 

“Other cities are hopefully watching this,” Trump said. “They're all watching and maybe they'll self clean up and maybe they'll self do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem.”

The law Trump invoked applies only to the District of Columbia because it lacks a governor to approve or deny the federal intervention. “Washington, D.C. is in a unique position and is uniquely powerless vis-à-vis the federal government,” Chertoff says.

In contrast, cities like New York, Baltimore, and Oakland are in states with elected governors who have legal authority over the National Guard and local police. Many of those leaders have pushed back strongly against Trump’s threats to federalize their law enforcement.