Federal troops are patrolling the National Mall and neighborhoods across Washington while President Donald Trump's administration exerts extraordinary power over law enforcement in the nation's capital.

The showdown in Washington is the latest attempt by Trump to test the boundaries of his legal authority to carry out his tough-on-crime agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally.

President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to make Washington "crime-free" as he spoke at the Kennedy Center."We're going to be essentially crime-free. This is going to be a beacon, and it's going to also serve as an example of what can be done,