Politics

Trump Loses Court Showdown in DC

By Jake Beardslee · December 4, 2025

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb has ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his lawful authority when he deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., determining that the action violated federal statutes. In her decision, Cobb emphasized that Trump cannot deploy military personnel “for the deterrence of crime.”

The deployment stemmed from Trump’s emergency declaration in August, which placed the D.C. police force under federal command and brought National Guard units into the capital. Even after the declaration expired a month later, the troops remained in the city. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb subsequently filed suit to challenge the continued federal presence.

The legal challenge in Washington was one of several lawsuits targeting Trump’s use of federal forces in U.S. cities, including similar actions in Los Angeles and Chicago. At the time, Schwalb condemned the federal deployment, writing, “Armed soldiers should not be policing American citizens on American soil. The forced military occupation of the District of Columbia violates our local autonomy and basic freedoms. It must end.” Trump defended the move, claiming the National Guard was needed to stop “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”

Judge Cobb rejected the administration’s argument that presidential authority as commander in chief allowed the deployment, noting that federal law and congressional oversight limit how the National Guard can be used in the District. In her 61-page ruling, she wrote, “The Court rejects Defendants’ fly-by assertion of constitutional power, finding that such a broad reading of the President’s Article II authority would erase Congress’s role in governing the District and its National Guard.”

Cobb, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, also found that the Pentagon could not legally send 1,000 out-of-state National Guard troops to assist law enforcement in Washington. She set the ruling to take effect on December 11, allowing the Trump administration time to appeal.

Schwalb reiterated his concerns after the decision, saying, “From the beginning, we made clear that the U.S. military should not be policing American citizens on American soil.” He warned that “Normalizing the use of military troops for domestic law enforcement sets a dangerous precedent, where the president can disregard states’ independence and deploy troops wherever and whenever he wants – with no check on his military power. This unprecedented federal overreach is not normal, or legal. It is long past time to let the National Guard go home – to their everyday lives, their regular jobs, their families, and their children.”

The White House, however, stood by Trump’s actions. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump is well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement with specific tasks.” She added, “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents — to undermine the president’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.”