Donald Trump says his administration is seizing control of the Washington DC police department and deploying the National Guard to crack down on local crime and “clear” the city of homelessness.
The US president has been warning the capital of a federal takeover since a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer was allegedly assaulted during an attempted carjacking last week.
Mr Trump said he wanted to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor”.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals,”
he said.
Local data shows violent crime has decreased in recent years after a crime wave in 2023, which authorities described as a post-pandemic spike. In January, the Department of Justice said violent crime was down 35 per cent on the previous year, and had hit a 30-year low.
Washington mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, argues the city is having significant success managing crime. She has previously taken measures widely seen as designed to fend off federal intervention — including the removal of Washington’s Black Lives Matter Plaza in March.
But Mr Trump pointed to recent incidents such as the shooting death of a 21-year-old intern working for a Republican congressman, and the beating of former DOGE staffer Edward Coristine, better known by the alias “Big Balls”.
The president last week shared a photograph of the 19-year-old, and warned the federal government would take control “if DC doesn’t get its act together”.
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