“This is Liberation Day in D.C.” At his press conference Monday morning, Donald Trump announced not only that he was deploying the National Guard to address rampant crime in our nation’s capital, but that he has taken control of the city police force. And that’s just the beginning.
Anyone who has been to Washington, D.C. in recent years knows that crime and the homeless encampments are completely out of control. No more, said Trump, who plans to bring down crime, clear out homeless camps, reform “the slums,” beautify the city, and stop allowing D.C. Democrats to have higher crime rates than the cities in many third-world countries infamous for corruption and violence. To that end, Trump has declared a public safety emergency and put Attorney General Pam Bondi in charge of the D.C. police.
Trump began, “Something's out of control, but we're going to put it in control very quickly, like we did on the southern border. I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor — and worse.” He added, “We're taking [D.C.] back under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States. I'm officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule act. You know what that is, and placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control, and you'll be meeting the people that will be directly involved with that.” He’s also deploying the National Guard via Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump reminded the journalists that they would benefit from this crackdown, too. “The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on earth. Much higher,” Trump said. “The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years, and the number of carjackings has more than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever. They say 25 years.” He hinted that someone is under investigation for admitting to being asked to rig crime numbers to make D.C. Democrats and Joe Biden look better.
“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 just like we did on our southern border,” Trump said. He claimed the D.C. violent crime rate was double that of Baghdad and higher than cities that included Panama City and Lima, Peru.
The president insisted, “Every American has a constitutional right to be able to access and petition their government in safety, and countless federal officials and employees likewise have the right to carry out their jobs in peace without being shot.” He referred to the murder of former Trump administration official Mike Gill last year in a carjacking, a “horror show,” as Trump said, and the brutal attack on DOGE’s Edward Coristine that launched this whole controversy. “This issue directly impacts the functioning of the federal government, and is a threat to America, really, it's a threat to our country,” Trump said, noting how many American cities are plagued with crime.
“We're starting very strongly with DC, and we're gonna clean it up real quick,” Trump promised. “In 2023, an aide to Sen. Rand Paul was stabbed in the chest and head by a demented lunatic as he walked down the street, just absolutely for no reason. Horrifically, last July 4 weekend, a three year old girl was shot in the head and killed while sitting in a car near the Capitol. It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness, and we get rid of the slums too. We have slums here… I know it's not politically correct. [W]e get rid of the slums where they live.”
He argued that criminals “fight back until you knock the hell out of them, because it's the only language they understand. But they fought back against law enforcement last night.” Trump said the statute will be changed to end no cash bail, and that law enforcement can now physically defend themselves from people who spit in their faces. “We have to get rid of sanctuary cities as quickly as possible,” he also said. “In 2022, nearly 70% of criminals arrested in Washington went unprosecuted. That's not going to happen with the group we have.”
After bragging about his border record, Trump said it was “embarrassing for me to be up here” talking about D.C. crime just before having to take on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. But D.C. will not only become safer, it will undergo “beautification.” The roads will quickly be fixed, he vowed.
He said Drug Enforcement Administration head Terrence Cole will be the interim federal commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Department. “You have a lot of great police, and those people are the ones that want to help you. This city will no longer be a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals. We will have full, seamless, integrated cooperation at all levels of law enforcement, and will deploy officers across the district with an overwhelming presence,” Trump declared. “You're going to see police, or you're going to see FBI agents.”
They will be “targeting known gangs, drug dealers and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street, maybe get them out of the country, because a lot of them came into our country illegally.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the Park Police in D.C. will be clearing out the homeless from all the areas they police, including the areas around our most important monuments. Hegseth also spoke and confirmed that the military will be ready to send in specialized teams if need be to address crime.
This marks a major revolution in D.C. law enforcement.
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