Trump orders increased law enforcement presence in Washington to ‘make DC safe again'
'Washington, DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 'President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens.'
She added that the increased federal presence means 'there will be no safe harbor for violent criminals in DC.'
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 — but could face steep pushback.
'We have a capital that's very unsafe,' Trump told reporters at the White House this week. 'We have to run DC.'
The White House said the increased law enforcement would 'make D.C. safe again' and would be present on the streets starting at midnight — led by US Park Police following an 11 p.m. Thursday roll call at an established command center.
The push will last the next seven days with the option to extend 'as needed,' under the authority of Trump's previous executive order establishing the Making DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force. The added federal officials will be identified, in marked units and highly visible, the White House said.
Participating law enforcement include personnel from the US Capitol Police, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the US Marshals Service and the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
The police forces for Amtrak and the city's Metro rail service are also involved.
However, a two-hour tour of the DC streets, starting around 1 a.m. Friday, revealed no evidence of the sort of multi-agency flood of uniformed personnel described in Trump's announcement. There was a robust, but not unusual, Metropolitan Police Department presence in late-night hot spots like 14th Street and along Florida Avenue. But there was no overt or visible law enforcement presence other than the MPD.
Trump has long suggested crime and violence is on the rise in Washington, and has lately begun to criticize things like litter and graffiti. But the catalyst for the order to increase police presence was the assault last weekend on a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency by a group of teenagers in an attempted carjacking.
The victim, Edward Coristine, nicknamed 'Big Balls,' was among the most visible figures of DOGE, which was tasked with cutting jobs and slashing the federal bureaucracy. Police arrested two 15-year-olds and say they're still looking for other members of the group.
'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,' Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this week.
The president subsequently said he was considering repealing Washington's limited Home Rule autonomy or 'bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly.'
Thursday's announcement comes as Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser's government can claim to have reduced the number of homicides and carjackings — both of which spiked citywide in 2023.
Carjackings in Washington overall dropped significantly the following year in 2024, from 957 to just under 500, and the number is on track to decline again this year — with less than 200 recorded so far more than halfway through 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
White House to hold press conference on crime in DC on Monday: President Trump
US President Donald Trump said a press conference will be held at the White House on Monday to address the crime in Washington, DC "On Monday a Press Conference will be held at the White House which will, essentially, stop violent crime in Washington, DC It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Trump said on August 6 he may use the National Guard to police the streets of Washington, DC, the latest threat by the administration toward taking over the running the city that serves as the seat of the US government.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Weigh in on Sydney Sweeney or run the world? Trump attempts it all
From firing people to promoting jeans, calling for peace deals or the renaming of a sports team, President Donald Trump keeps a lot on his proverbial to-do list. Much of it is unrelated to running the country. More than six months into his second term as US commander-in-chief, Trump, a former New York businessman and reality television host, has applied a hands-on management style and producer-like attitude toward governing, relying largely on his own instincts for decisions large and small. Using the tools of social media and a propensity for bullying, Trump personally wades into issues inside and outside the federal government to get his way. He harangues company executives to invest in America and uses trade deals as leverage over foreign leaders to end conflicts. Last week he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over unproven allegations she falsified figures that he didn't like. This week he called for the head of Intel to step down over ties with China, and the company's stock fell. In recent months he has pressed the Washington Commanders football team to change its name back to the Redskins, forced universities to pay huge amounts to the federal government, boosted retailer American Eagle Outfitters' shares with a compliment about a controversial jeans commercial featuring actor Sydney Sweeney and attempted to shore up Republican power by pushing for political redistricting in Texas. Trump's style, which can confound both his friends and his foes, is dramatically different from his more traditional predecessors. It has earned him condemnation for being caustic and praise for being effective at getting what he wants. 'While he delves into topics that are certainly distractions relative to the big business of leading the world's greatest nation, it can also be said that past presidents have excessively deferred to the bureaucracy and failed to deliver the change their voters expected,' said Carlos Curbelo, a Republican former congressman from Florida. 'Trump views himself more as the CEO of the USA. than as president,' Curbelo added. 'It's good for decision making and challenging for the constitutional order which made our country the world's greatest economic and military force.' Trump has taken on academia, the legal world, media companies, athletics, the federal bureaucracy and more, all while retooling the world economy with tariffs, cracking down on immigration flows, upending relations with allies and putting his stamp on American culture. Though he has a team of advisers, the president frequently follows his own counsel, making policy decisions and then announcing them himself, ramifications aside. 'I think what a lot of people miss about Trump is he's the marketer-in-chief,' said Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist with ties to the White House. 'Not only is he his own best press secretary, he's also his own best chief-of-staff.' A POTUS who 'can't focus' Critics question why Trump gets bogged down in issues that are secondary to his goals of strengthening the US economy, for example, or achieving a peace deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 'He's commenting one moment on ... Putin and tariffs and all that's happening in the world and the next moment he's talking about, oh, Sydney Sweeney, and all these other issues that are completely unrelated to being president of the United States,' said Charlie Dent, a Republican former congressman from Pennsylvania. 'He simply can't focus.' The White House said Trump is using his skills to deliver on policy priorities. 'President Trump's leadership style can be summed up plainly as decisive and commanding,' said White House spokesman Harrison Fields. Trump also employs a talent to distract when facing difficulty. Though that super power has largely eluded him with the controversy over sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Department of Justice's refusal to release files related to the disgraced financier's case, Trump's broad ability to change the subject and dominate the news cycle has stupefied his opponents for years. 'His leadership style is much closer to that of an executive producer, and the executive producer who has a really big picture understanding of the audience,' said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, a senior adviser to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. 'I think he trusts his instincts about the audience over anybody else, and that's why you see him oftentimes, you know, managing his own policy portfolio.' Trump, though not a stickler for detail on all things policy-related, does get into the weeds on things he cares about, both cultural and political, including redecorating the Oval Office with gold, paving over the Rose Garden and building a new ballroom on the White House grounds. On Tuesday, reporters bantered with the president while he walked on the roof of the White House press room, surveying the grounds for what he said were more ways to spend his money. The White House said Trump and other donors plan to pay for the $200 million ballroom project, which is slated to be finished before his second term concludes. 'I think narcissists do get bogged down in details because they think that everything is a reflection of them,' said Republican strategist Rina Shah. 'When he decides to focus on the minutia, he's forgetting about the bigger picture. And that's kind of a disservice to the office.' Where critics see such disservice, the White House sees results. On the eve of presiding over a US-brokered peace framework between Azerbaijan and Armenia this week, Trump took to social media to tout his involvement: 'Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to 'TRUMP.''
Asharq Al-Awsat
4 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Zelenskyy Rejects Formally Ceding Ukrainian Territory, Says Kyiv Must Be Part of Any Negotiations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Saturday the planned summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would lead to 'dead solutions.' The meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough after weeks of expressing frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting. In a statement posted to Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine's territorial integrity, enshrined in the constitution, must be non-negotiable and emphasized that lasting peace must include Ukraine's voice at the table. Zelenskyy said Ukraine 'will not give Russia any awards for what it has done' and that 'Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.' Touching on Ukrainian anxieties that a direct meeting between Putin and Trump could marginalize Kyiv and European interests, Zelenskyy said: 'Any solutions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time, solutions against peace. They will not bring anything. These are dead solutions, they will never work.' Ukrainian officials previously told the Associated Press privately that Kyiv would be amenable to a peace deal that would de facto recognize Ukraine's inability to regain lost territories militarily. Trump said he will meet with Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. 'It seems entirely logical for our delegation to fly across the Bering Strait simply, and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,' Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, as saying. Such a summit may prove pivotal in a war that began more than three years ago when Russia invaded its western neighbor and has led to tens of thousands of deaths, although there's no guarantee it will stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace. In comments to reporters at the White House before his post confirming the date and place, Trump suggested that any agreement would likely involve 'some swapping of territories,' but he gave no details. Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed. Trump said his meeting with Putin would come before any sit-down discussion involving Zelenskyy. Trump also previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy. That stoked fears in Europe that Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent's biggest conflict since World War II. Trump's announcement that he planned to host one of America's adversaries on US soil broke with expectations that they'd meet in a third country. The gesture gives Putin validation after the US and its allies had long sought to make him a pariah over his war against Ukraine.
