Trump's week in review: DC takeover to reduce crime, 'Pursuing Peace' summit with Putin

2. Trump announces federal takeover of DC

At a White House press conference Monday, Trump announced his plan to deploy National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and place the capital city’s Metropolitan Police Department under the authority of United States Attorney General Pam Bondi as part of an effort to “help re-establish law, order and public safety” in the district and reduce the high crime rate.

The president also unveiled his intention to aesthetically improve the city by replacing potholes and deteriorating infrastructure in addition to removing homeless encampments from public parks.

In an executive order Monday, coinciding with Trump’s press conference, Trump identified the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department as consistent with the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act. The relevant portion of the 1973 law authorizes the federal government to take control of the law enforcement agency if “special conditions of an emergency nature exist.”

At the press conference, Trump insisted that the situation in Washington amounts to an emergency. “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,” he 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.” 

Statistics compiled by The Washington Post showed there were 274 homicides in D.C. in 2023. With a homicide rate of 40 per 100,000 residents, the city had a higher murder rate than all but four of the largest cities in the U.S.: New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore and Memphis. Data compiled by the Metropolitan Police Department showed that the number of murders dropped to 187 in 2024. 

In a statement on Friday, Washington, D.C.’s Democratic Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced that he had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Trump administration’s “hostile takeover” of the nation's capital.