In Washington on Wednesday night, the most visible sign of President Trump’s takeover of the local Police Department was a sobriety checkpoint operated by local and federal police agencies on a busy street near downtown, which drew a crowd of jeering protesters.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who has denied crime is out of control in her city, described the troop deployment as an "authoritarian push". Trump, a Republican, has also threatened similar deployments against New York and Chicago, two other Democratic-controlled cities.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will seek more permanent federal control of the Washington, D.C., police force as he continues his efforts to ramp-up crime enforcement in the nation's capital.

The 800 soldiers, in round-the-clock shifts of 100 to 200, will support Washington police and federal law enforcement officers.

Federal troops are patrolling the National Mall and neighborhoods across Washington in President Donald Trump's extraordinary takeover of the police department in the nation's capital.

Outside the busiest train station in Washington, newly deployed National Guard troops wearing camouflage lean on a huge military Humvee. Wary residents and curious tourists stop to take photos, while inside the elegant Union Station a string trio plays "What a Wonderful World.

Trump's plan to address crime in D.C. calls for deploying National Guard troops along the National Mall overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning, according to a source.

The Air Force says in a new memo that transgender airmen ousted under a recent Trump administration directive will no longer have the chance to argue before a board of their peers for the right to continue serving their country.