Trump exposed for eye-watering taxpayer cost of DC takeover

President Donald Trump looks on as he exits Air Force One on his arrival at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

A new watchdog report has exposed the eye-watering costs to U.S. taxpayers that have piled up as a result of President Donald Trump's federal takeover of Washington D.C.

Last summer, Trump announced via executive order that the federal government would be taking over control of the D.C. police department, while also deploying forces from the district's National Guard regiment and from the regiments in other states. This, he and his MAGA allies claimed, was being done to address rampant crime in Washington, despite the fact that major crimes had been on the decline in the city for years, as they have been in many major metro areas. It was also speculated that the move came as a response to one of Trump's former DOGE employees, Edward Coristine, getting assaulted by two teenagers.

On Monday, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released a new report detailing the vast expenses that this takeover has racked up on the dime of taxpayers, totaling over $18 million in less than a year, based on materials that the group obtained from the U.S. Marshals via a lawsuit.

"From August 2025 to March 2026, the U.S. Marshals Service identified over $18 million in taxpayer funded costs related to its deployment for the Trump administration’s federal takeover of D.C., according to records obtained by CREW through a lawsuit brought under the Freedom of Information Act," the watchdog report explained. "The marshals play several important roles, including providing security for judges, tracking down fugitives across the country and running the witness security program. The agency apparently pulled resources from district courts across the country, including in Guam and the Virgin Islands, to participate in the 'D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.'”

These additional costs from the Marshals are on top of the $332 million cost related to the deployment of National Guard forces to D.C. as of February.

The CREW report added later: "The most significant cost was nearly $6 million pulled from USMS’ tactical operations division, the unit responsible for responding to high-threat and emergency situations. The agency also pulled over $3 million from its investigative operations division and over $2 million from the D.C. Superior Court, reducing the number of marshals providing security in a high profile courthouse in D.C. during a surge of threats against judges."

Based on emails that the group obtained from the lawsuit, they also determined that the "marshals’ involvement in it was announced abruptly and had significant staffing implications," with one August email from a chief in the Tactical Operations Division claiming that agents would be deployed the following day.

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