By Joseph Ax (Reuters) -Hundreds of additional National Guard troops are headed to Washington, D.C., from half a dozen Republican-led states, bolstering President Donald Trump's extraordinary move to flood the Democratic-led city with soldiers and federal agents in what he claims is an effort to fight violent crime.

Welcome to the first weekend of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on Washington, D.C., which, serious as it has been, is just a prelude — and things could quickly get much more intense.

The Trump administration’s announcement this week that it would rescind the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials was hardly an isolated act.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on violent crime in Washington, D.C., has already netted more than 240 arrests and seized 38 guns off the streets, a White House official said.

"The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogotá, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth," Trump said.

Representative Ayanna Pressley said that President Trump’s federal takeover in Washington, D.C., is less about public safety and more about stoking fear and racism.

Trump held a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska at which the US president aligned himself with Putin by backing off his demand for a ceasefire amid peace-talk negotiations.

A Pentagon spokesperson lashed out at the Washington Post over a new report that detailed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s shocking security costs. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Hegseth’s "unusually large personal security requirements are straining" the U.