TRUMP — AND THE GOP — CAN DO A LOT TO FIGHT CRIME IN DC. News reports are filled with stories that President Donald Trump intends to “federalize” the District of Columbia. Few include the fact that the District is already federalized, and has been since its creation in 1791.

Trump made the pledge after a former official in the DOGE effort, Edward Coristine, was badly beaten in an attempted carjacking in the city. “Crime in Washington, DC is totally out of control,” the president posted on Truth Social. “If DC doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take federal control of the city, and run this city how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore. Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of violent crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this city.”

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As president, Trump has considerable powers over law enforcement in the District. Of course, the Metropolitan Police Department is controlled by the city. But the District is full of federal law enforcement, as well — all sorts of agencies have uniformed security services. On Thursday, Trump ordered those agencies — U.S. Marshals, Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Park Police, and others — to take a larger role in law enforcement in the city. 

Even before the Coristine incident, some agencies had been exercising more stringent enforcement. In the past few months, for example, the Park Police have made nearly 500 arrests for crimes like public consumption of marijuana. Now, there will be more.

For Trump to go further afield, though, would require the approval of Congress, which has the absolute authority to run the District of Columbia. The Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 gave Congress the power “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever” over the District. 

One might point out, though, that Congress granted the District the power to run itself with the Home Rule Act in 1973. But look at the text of the Act. A passage entitled “Retention of Constitutional Authority” says that “the Congress of the United States reserves the right, at any time, to exercise its constitutional authority as legislature for the District, by enacting legislation for the District on any subject, whether within or without the scope of legislative power granted to the [city] council by this Act, including legislation to amend or repeal any law in force in the District prior to or after enactment of this Act and any act passed by the council.”

You can’t get any clearer than that. When the framers of the Constitution wrote “in all cases whatsoever,” they meant everything. When the Congress that passed the Home Rule Act recognized Congress’s authority to pass legislation “on any subject … at any time … on any subject” — that’s very clear. Ultimately, Congress runs the District of Columbia.

Over the years, lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, have used that power. In 2023, when the all-Democrat, deeply woke city council passed a crazy crime bill that would have reduced penalties for homicides, carjackings, home invasion burglaries, and robberies, as well as penalties for all violent felonies committed with a gun, Congress, on a bipartisan basis, stepped in and threw it out. One headline for the story read, “Congress overturns DC crime bill with President Biden’s help.”

Now, if Congress wants to step in again, it can. Certainly the president is on board. Republicans will be, too. But the question is whether Democrats, who in 2023 were willing to step in behind a Democratic president, would stop an effort to pour more resources into public safety under President Trump.

You’ve probably heard the argument that crime is decreasing in Washington. That’s certainly true if you compare it to the highly elevated levels of crime during the pandemic years. But crime is still a serious, quality-of-life-changing issue in the District.

The rate of homicides was relatively low at the beginning of Trump’s first term — 17 murders per 100,000 population in 2017. By 2023, that number had more than doubled, to 40 per 100,000. In 2024, it fell to 27 per 100,000. That was better than 40, but by one measure, the District still ranked fifth among U.S. cities, according to figures compiled by the Rochester Institute of Technology Center for Public Safety Initiatives. And in any event, homicides are still higher than they were in the early 2010s, when they fell to a rate of 14 per 100,000 population.

Now, Democrats say, murders in the District are still falling, and therefore Trump and the GOP should not step in. It seems odd to argue against increased law enforcement in a city with a serious crime problem. But that might be what Democrats do if Trump and his party try to step up the fight against crime. But remember — the president has some power, and Congress has complete power, to intervene.