The National Guard in Washington
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The National Guard in Washington was the federalisation of the District of Columbia police force in August 2025, and the first subject John Kiriakou took up on the DeProgram programme that day.

His personal response

Kiriakou announced a decision before analysing the policy. "I made a decision today when I heard that Donald Trump was federalising the Washington DC police force and taking over police duties in Washington with the help of the National Guard." Because he lives "three miles from the White House", he expected to encounter them: "I'm going to go up to every National Guardsman that I see and I'm going to say, 'You should be ashamed of yourself. If there was ever a time to stand up and say no, now's the time, you gutless pigs.'"

The stated justification

He disputes the premise of a crime emergency, and doubts it is sincerely held: Trump "has gotten it into his head that crime is out of control. Actually, he probably hasn't even gotten it into his head. He's just faking it."

The figures he gives run the other way: "DC does not have a crime problem. Murders are down. Violent crimes overall are down 37%. We have no crime problem in Washington right now."

He also notes who was left out of the decision: "He didn't bother to inform Mayor Muriel Bowser. He didn't bother to inform the DC police chief. He just announced that he's taken it over and that's it."

The three-day limit

Kiriakou says he checked the authority, "so I looked this up", and found it narrow. The president "absolutely can do" it, but only "for a period of three days. He can take it over for three days and then he has to get congressional authorisation."

The obstacle was procedural. "Well, guess what? Congress isn't in session. And so remember, they all ran away so they wouldn't have to vote on the Epstein release."

He suspects the check was never made: "I wonder if they didn't check that. I suspect they didn't check it. And so this is a publicity stunt. Literally nothing is going to come of it."

The homeless

On the accompanying promise to clear homeless people from the streets, Kiriakou's objection was that nothing had been said about where they would go: "No word on what that means or where you're going to send them. You going to send them to Maryland? ... I don't know. And it doesn't make any sense."

He is not, however, dismissive of the underlying conditions, having noted separately that homelessness in the capital is a real problem even as the response to it is a stunt.

See also

- The Lafayette Square tents
- The third-term workaround
- Donald Trump
- John Kiriakou
