Trump says to move homeless people 'far' from Washington
It is an arrangement Trump has long publicly chafed at. He has threatened to federalize the city and give the White House the final say in how it is run.
"I'm going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before," the president posted on his Truth Social platform Sunday.
"The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital," he continued, adding that criminals in the city would be swiftly imprisoned.
"It's all going to happen very fast," he said.
Washington is ranked 15th on a list of major US cities by homeless population, according to government statistics from last year.
While thousands of people spend each night in shelters or on the streets, the figure are down from pre-pandemic levels.
Earlier this week Trump also threatened to deploy the National Guard as part of a crackdown on what he falsely says is rising crime in Washington.
Violent crime in the capital fell in the first half of 2025 by 26 percent compared with a year earlier, police statistics show.
The city's crime rates in 2024 were already their lowest in three decades, according to figures produced by the Justice Department before Trump took office.
"We are not experiencing a crime spike," Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday on MSNBC.
While the mayor, a Democrat, was not critical of Trump in her remarks, she said "any comparison to a war torn country is hyperbolic and false."
Trump's threat to send in the National Guard comes weeks after he deployed California's military reserve force into Los Angeles to quell protests over immigration raids, despite objections from local leaders and law enforcement.
The president has frequently mused about using the military to control America's cities, many of which are under Democratic control and hostile to his nationalist impulses.
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France 24
11 minutes ago
- France 24
Trump deploys National Guard to Washington, DC and places its police force under federal control
Trump announced Monday that he was invoking the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy National Guard troops and put the Washington police force under federal control in a move he said would make the nation's capital safer. "This is Liberation Day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back," Trump said at a White House press conference. Trump has promised new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington, prompting the city's mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets. Ahead of a news conference, Trump said Monday on social media that the nation's capital would be "LIBERATED today!". He said he would end the "days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people". For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings. 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Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining. It could face steep pushback. Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city's police, but only if certain conditions are met. "None of those conditions exist in our city right now," she said. "We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down."
LeMonde
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- LeMonde
Ukraine: Avoiding the trap of the Russia-US summit in Alaska
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LeMonde
6 hours ago
- LeMonde
Ukrainians view upcoming Trump-Putin summit with some skepticism
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