Now Trump Wants the Federal Government to Take Over D.C.

Trump trashed Washington, D.C., for its crime and homelessness on Wednesday night while calling for the District of Columbia to be put under the federal government’s control.

“I think that we should govern the District of Columbia, it’s so important, the D.C. situation,” Trump said when asked about his thoughts by a reporter aboard Air Force One on his way back to the White House from Miami.

“I think we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it absolutely flawlessly beautiful and I think we should take over Washington, D.C.,” Trump added. “Make it safe, people are getting killed, people are being hurt,” Trump said, without adding any context.

The district is run by a council of representatives and its mayor. Council members number 13 and serve for four-year terms.

Congress, however, does have the right to intervene under the home rule law, according to the Council of the District of Columbia’s website. Passed in 1973, the home rule means “Congress reviews all legislation passed by the Council before it can become law and retains authority over the District’s budget,” it states. “Also, the President appoints the District’s judges, and the District still has no voting representation in Congress.”

Trump said D.C. has a “great police department” but “somehow they’re not utilized properly.” He added he got along “great” with its mayor, Muriel Bowser, “but they’re not doing the job. Too much crime. Too much graffiti. Too many tents on the lawns of... those magnificent lawns and there’s tents... and you know, it’s a sad thing, homeless people all over the place. We gotta take care of the homeless. But you can’t have that in Washington, D.C.

“When they come in to see me... like Macron is coming, the prime minister of the U.K. is coming, all these people coming over to see me,” he continued. “We’ll have ultimately President Xi, we’ll have everybody. … You can’t let that happen.”

Trump’s dismissal of the city as a graffiti-ridden crime hotspot is not new; he made numerous criticisms of the municipality on the campaign trail, including at an appearance in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Jan. 20, 2024, where he labeled it “one of the most unsafe places you can go to, anywhere on Earth.”