WASHINGTON — President Trump announced an escalation of law enforcement in DC on Monday, placing the city’s police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to patrol the streets — and warning New York City could be next.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse. This is liberation day in DC and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people. And we’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re not going to take it.”
Trump vowed to “clean it up real quick,” “like we did on the southern border” with illegal immigration.
“I’m going to look at New York in a little while,” the president threatened — also name-checking Chicago and Los Angeles as cities where he may order the feds next.
Trump additionally announced plans for federal legislation that would override state laws barring judges from applying cash bail requirements to criminal defendants.
Terry Cole, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, will temporarily lead the 3,400-officer Metropolitan Police Department under the supervision of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The federal Home Rule Act, which granted DC local self-governance in 1973, allows the president to assert emergency control of the capital’s local police for 30 days. Congress can pass a joint resolution extending the authority.
Trump noted many high-profile recent crimes in DC, including the Aug. 3 attack on former Department of Government Efficiency staffer Edward Coristine, 19, during an alleged attempted carjacking and the June 30 murder of congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, in a drive-by shooting.
The president held up a chart showing that DC has more murders per capita than the capital cities of cocaine-exporting Columbia, cartel-plagued Mexico, and terrorist hub Iraq.
“We doubled up on Baghdad,” Trump commented.
“You people are victims of it too. You are reporters and I understand a lot of you tend to be on the liberal side. But you don’t want to get mugged and raped, and shot and killed. And you all know people, friends of yours, where that’s happened.”
Trump also mentioned the 2023 carjacking of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), the stabbing of an aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) the same year by a “demented lunatic” and the shooting death of a three-year girl in July.
The president also described local criminals riding unauthorized ATVs and motorbikes down the roads and said he planned to beautify the District by fixing road medians, broken marble and potholes.
“We’re getting rid of the slums too. We have slums here. We’re getting rid of them. I know it’s not politically correct,” Trump said, without offering additional detail on apparent plans to get rid of public housing in high-property-value DC.
“We’re getting rid of the slums where they live.”
Homeless encampments will also be removed from all public places, including in parks and underpasses, the president vowed, while the US Park Police — under the control of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — will be responsible for the removal of graffiti.
Trump’s federalization of DC police attracted a smattering of protests near the White House, but Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser told MSNBC Sunday ahead of the announcement “we do need the federal government’s help” and specifically requested assistance rebuilding the city jail.
Bowser recently invoked curfews in parts of the city in a bid to keep teens off the street as early as 7 p.m., but also has claimed crime rates are going down in the city, pointing to official data.
Trump claimed Monday that the numbers were “phony” and promised that Bondi will be “looking into that.”
The president noted that DC police commander Michael Pulliam, whose district included the densely populated Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights neighborhoods, was suspended last month for allegedly falsifying crime data to make trends appear more positive.
The local DC police union defended Pulliam and accused MPD leadership of ordering subordinates to falsify violent crime data.
If necessary, Trump added, ordinary military members could be deployed to join the National Guard and the local cops.
The president has direct control over DC’s National Guard, unlike every other unit, which is under the authority of state governors.
“Washington, DC, should be one of the safest, cleanest and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world,” Trump summed up his plans, “and we’re going to make it that.”
