Hundreds of protesters march to White House on Aug. 16, 2025. Brian Mann/NPR

WASHINGTON — Hundreds gathered peacefully in the nation’s capital on Saturday afternoon to protest President Trump’s attempted takeover of the city’s police department and deployment of  National Guard units alongside federal agents.

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Starting with a rally in the northwest neighborhood of DuPont Circle, protesters chanted, “Shame” and “Trump must go now!” while demanding an end to the “crime emergency” that Trump declared in an executive order on Monday.

Protesters later marched to the White House, continuing to chant, as D.C. Metropolitan Police officers and National Park Service police looked on from a distance.

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Mason Weber of Maryland told NPR he attended the march because he was concerned that the deployment of troops is a “serious ethical and legal breach.”

“The most concerning thing about it is there’s been no check and balance of the systems of power,” Weber said. “Congress, if it comes to it, we expect to authorize it for longer.”

A protester stands in front of Metropolitan Police Department officers and National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 16, 2025. Brian/Mann

The demonstration took place two days after Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to appoint Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as an “emergency police commissioner” who would assume full operational control over D.C. police. Trump officials backed off that effort on Friday after D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit in federal court.

“The hostile takeover of our police force is not going to happen — a very important win for home rule today,” Schwalb told reporters late Friday.