Make D.C. Great Again! “We could run D.C. We’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well,” said President Trump recently. Trump is floating his takeover threat amid a high-profile project to build a new NFL stadium in the District.
Trump over the weekend said he could step in if the D.C. Council does not approve a pending deal for a new Washington Commanders football stadium at the federally-owned RFK site, a massive development project in the nation’s capital.
“We’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you. We want a capital that runs flawlessly,” he said. “It wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”
“We would run it so good, it would be run so proper, we’d get the best person to run it,” Trump said about Washington on Tuesday. “And we know the crime would be down to a minimum, would be much less.”
While violent crime is reportedly on par with last year’s numbers, the D.C. crime rate is still well above pre-pandemic levels.
To highlight the crime dangers, a Capitol Hill intern was killed in a shooting last week. And in May, two young staffers from the Israeli embassy were brutally gunned down by a pro-Palestinian terrorist.
Trump has long called for the federal government to take over Washington, complaining that local leaders weren’t effective and arguing the city has become riddled with crime.
Trump last floated a takeover in February, criticizing Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser’s management of the city. Relations seemed to improve after Bowser cleared several homeless encampments and agreed to work together to beautify the city.
Trump repeatedly said he wanted to take over D.C. while running as a candidate.
But he also said that right now his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was working with Mayor Bowser. He added: “And we’ve had a good relationship with the mayor. We’re testing to see if it works.”
The district has some autonomy under the 1973 Home Rule Act, which grants residents the ability to manage affairs by electing a mayor and city council members, which sadly has produced leftists and losers running the city into the ground.
But final oversight of the district’s laws and budget are left to Congress.
In 2023, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives blocked two local bills from going into effect, including one that would have updated the district’s criminal code.
When asked about Trump once again talking about a potential federal takeover of D.C., Bowser pointed to the District’s limited Home Rule authority.
“When a President has both houses of the Congress, limited home rule is just that,” she told reporters.
Under the Home Rule Act, Congress reviews all legislation passed by the council before it can become law and retains authority over the District’s budget.
When asked to what extent she works with Wiles, Bowser told reporters she works with his team more than she has worked with any president.
“I think our approach to working with the President has been a good one: to focus on our shared priorities, which we have,” she said.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s Democratic delegate to the House of Representatives, slammed the president’s comments in a statement.
She said in part: “I’ll do everything possible to prevent a disastrous increase in the federal government’s power over the District and to stop the bills to repeal the Home Rule Act from making any progress in Congress.”
While a full takeover of the District would require Congress to abolish the city’s home rule, only a handful of conservative Republicans support its repeal.
However, the president could take over the Metropolitan Police Department employing a never-before-used provision that would allow POTUS to run the D.C. police, at least temporarily.
As Axios explains,if the White House believes that “special conditions of an emergency nature exist,” the president “may direct” the mayor to provide MPD forces for “federal purposes,” as the Home Rule Act states that “the Mayor shall provide” police services “as the President may deem necessary and appropriate.”
In that situation, the president can control MPD for only 48 hours. But the president can easily extend that control for 30 days.
In that case, the president would need to notify certain members of Congress, including the top-ranking members of the House and Senate committees, who have oversight over the city, in writing about why and how long control of MPD would likely last.
But Trump would likely face little opposition at the moment. Holding that option in reserve provides the president a lot of leverage. Let’s hope he doesn’t need to use it, but if he does, he should.
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DC IS NOT A STATE AND THEREFORE SHOULDN’T HAVE A MAYOR OR A GOVERNOR!!! A CITY MANAGER OR A CONSTABLE THAT REPORTS TO THE PRESIDENT OR CHIEF OF STATE!!!
True, they are a Federal Area and should be policed and controlled by the President of the United States and Congress! In reality Washington, D.C. SHOULD be one of the safest places in the United States, but today one puts their life in harm’s way by walking the streets there even during the day, during darkness they will be robbed, killed or both!
Anything run by Democrats is always a total mess and a failure. Time for the government to do its job and take full control of D.C.