Hundreds of demonstrators occur at the White House on August 16, 2025.
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Brian Mann / NPR
WASHINGTON – Hundreds of people gathered peacefully in the national capital on Saturday afternoon to protest against the attempt to take control by the president of the president of the city and the deployment of the units of the National Guard alongside federal agents.
Starting with a rally in the northwest district of Dupont Circle, the demonstrators sang, “shame” and “Trump must go now!” While demanding the end of “the urgency of the crime” that Trump said in a decree on Monday.
Demonstrators then walked in the White House, continuing to sing, while the Metropolitan Police of DC and the National Park Service police looked at a distance.
Mason Weber of Maryland told NPR that he had attended the march because he feared that the deployment of troops was “serious ethical and legal violation”.
“The most worrying thing about this is that there has been no check and balance of power systems,” said Weber. “Congress, if there is, we expect to allow it longer.”
A demonstrator stands in front of the officers of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Troops of the National Guard in Washington, DC, on August 16, 2025.
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The demonstration took place two days after the Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to appoint the administrator of the Drug Application Administration, Terry Cole, as “emergency police commissioner” who would take full operational control over the DC police. Trump officials fell for this effort on Friday after the DC prosecutor General Brian Schwalb filed a complaint with the Federal Court.
“The hostile takeover of our police will not occur – a very important victory for the house’s settlement today,” Schwalb told journalists late Friday.
But the people who paraded on Saturday said that the successful effort to prevent the White House from appointing an emergency police chief controlled by Trump is not far enough.
The deployment of the National Guard and Trump’s growing influence on DC police activities are described by DC residents – including John Smith, who said Trump exaggerated that the city was riddled with crimes.
“I think he doesn’t know what he is talking about,” said Smith. “I am a little white man and I walk safely all the time.”
Catherine Ernst told NPR that she lived in the DC region for seven years and thinks it is important to show the opposition. She also hoped for a greater participation.
“It’s much better than lengthening and letting it happen. We need more people in the movement to stop what’s going on,” said Ernst.
Sam Goldman, organizer on Saturday March and spokesperson to refuse fascism on August 16, 2025.
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Sam Goldman, spokesperson for refuses Fasism, a group that helped organize the march, told NPR that it was time for more people to make their voices heard.
“We have to turn the trend. We have to wake up all the decent people in this country, including in Washington, DC,” said Goldman. “Millions and millions in our bones hate everything Trump and Maga represent, everything they have done and everything they do.”
Goldman also said that his group provided more demonstrations at DC in the coming weeks.
Abigail Jackson, spokesperson for the White House, said at NPR in a statement on Saturday: “Only DC liberals would be upset by efforts to stop violent crimes-hope they were well paid for themselves in public like that.”
The demonstrators gathered in front of the White House on August 16, 2025.
Brian Mann / NPR
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Meanwhile, the Governor of Virginia-Western Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said on Saturday that he had agreed to send 300 to 400 of the national guard troops to DC to support Trump’s repression. Earlier in the week, Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott refused a similar request to the national guard troops to support the deployment of Washington.
