Democrats in Congress denounced the 30-day mobilization inside the capital, which Trump previewed during the 2024 election, as an “unjustified power grab” and vowed to block an extension. The city’s elected attorney general called it an “unlawful” abuse of emergency powers to lower crime rates that the administration itself said had fallen.

As President Trump stepped up his fight with the District of Columbia on Monday, he signaled he could try to expand his efforts to exert federal control to other Democratic-led cities, citing what he described as out-of-control crime and squalor.