U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he was deploying 800 National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department, an extraordinary assertion of presidential power in the nation's capital.

At an extraordinary news conference on Monday, President Donald Trump revealed plans to take over the Washington, D.C. police department and deploy National Guard troops in the nation's capital to combat what he says it rampant violent crime that statistics show is actually decreasing.

President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to Washington DC and taken control of the city's police force as he pledges to crack down on crime and homelessness in the nation's capital.