Trump expands DC Task Force with new hiring portal for law enforcement

First on Fox: The Trump administration is expanding a D.C. task force launched earlier in 2025 to combat crime in the nation’s capital through a new hiring portal open to law enforcement across the country, Fox News Digital has learned.

More than 2,000 law enforcement personnel support the task force each night, which will now expand its mission through a hiring push. The department launched a new hiring portal on Wednesday, SAFEDC.GOV, inviting law enforcement officers to apply for positions at federal agencies participating in the task force.

Fox News Digital has learned that the designated applicants will serve on the initial deployment to the DC Task Force for up to a year. Those hired are eligible for employment bonuses, health care, federal pensions, paid leave and other benefits.

The portal’s launch comes after President Donald Trump repeatedly celebrated the success of the task force in D.C., citing it as an example for other cities to clean up their own crime problems.

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Washington, D.C., was among the cities hit by a nationwide violent crime wave in 2020 that saw a spike in homicides nationally. In the following years, it was the capital She was shaken by gunfire Which left innocent children dead, juveniles tended to commit car thefts that sometimes turned into deadly crimes, Shoplifting crimes and attacks on government employees, summer interns and others, including the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old congressional intern in June.

Democrats have opposed Trump’s crackdown on crime in D.C. — and similar efforts in cities like Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon — calling it an “abuse of power” and not necessary as crime trends have declined since 2020.

“We’ve gone from the most unsafe place anywhere to a place where now people and friends call me, and Democrats call me and say, ‘Sir, I want to thank you,'” Trump said in August. “My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years, and Washington, D.C., is safe, and I did it in four days.”

President Trump increases federal law enforcement presence in D.C. in wake of surge in violent crime

Trump signed an executive order in March to establish a “Safe and Beautiful” task force in the capital to combat crime in the city and intensify efforts to beautify it, before he signed another executive order in August declaring a state of emergency related to crime in the city and federalizing the police department.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on October 6, 2025 in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Hundreds of National Guard troops are patrolling city streets amid the crackdown, including in high-traffic centers like Union Station.

President Donald Trump speaks with law enforcement personnel and National Guard soldiers, August 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C (Jacqueline Martin/Associated Press)

More than 20 federal and local law enforcement agencies are assisting the task force, with more than 5,000 arrests made since its inception. The effort also led to the recovery of 14 missing children and the removal of more than 400 firearms from the city, according to White House data.

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Trump specifically called on the administration to roll out a hiring portal for the task force in a third related executive order dated August 25, ordering the task force to “establish an online portal for Americans with law enforcement or other relevant backgrounds and expertise to apply to join federal law enforcement entities in support of the policy objectives described in Executive Order 14333.”

Armed members of the National Guard patrol near the US Capitol as security is heightened following President Donald Trump’s deployment order. (Getty Images/Tassos Katopodis)

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Trump is currently on a week-long trip to Asia to meet with foreign leaders to discuss trade and regional security. He also met with US troops stationed in Japan on Tuesday, where he also praised the safety of Washington, D.C., since the start of his anti-crime campaign.

“The crime has come down to almost nothing. It’s a whole different ball game. It literally took 12 days, but let’s give us a month to do it. Really, we’ve had a lot of work and that’s a beautiful thing. And our service members, you know, people don’t care if we send our military, if we send our National Guard, if we send Space Command, they don’t care who the hell it is. They just want to be safe. And we have safe cities now. We started in Memphis, and Memphis was a disaster,” Trump said.