President Donald Trump promised on Monday to clean up crime and vagrancy in the nation’s capital by shifting more responsibilities over the district to the federal government.
Trump made the announcement during a press conference at the White House, where he laid out a number of executive actions he was taking to fight violent crime, decrease homelessness, and otherwise clean up Washington, D.C.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,” Trump said. “
This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re gonna take our capital back. We’re taking it back.”
Trump on Monday invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and declared a public emergency. This granted him to move the D.C. Police Department under the control of the Justice Department. DEA Administrator Terry Cole will head the department, per Trump’s orders.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and U.S. District Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro all appeared alongside Trump at the news conference.