After announcing last week he was considering a federal takeover of Washington, which has the highest crime rate per capita in the nation, President Trump announced Monday he was taking firm action effective immediately.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,” he said. “This is liberation day in D.C. and we’re gonna take our capital back.”
Citing a relevant section from the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which gives the president emergency powers, President Trump announced he is placing the Metropolitan Police Department under control of the Department of Justice. He also announced he is deploying the National Guard on the streets.
President Trump, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi, also vowed to crack down on no-cash bail and the city’s homeless problem.
Bob Maginnis, a retired U.S. Army officer, currently lives in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. After working in the nation’s capital for many years, he says the problem is city leaders who allowed law enforcement to diminish while crime increased.
“It's questionable, given the politics down there in the leftist hands,” he says, “that they're willing to enforce the law as it needs to be enforced."
In an X post, which published during Trump’s press conference, Washington, D.C. council member Charles Allen called Trump’s actions “extreme, outrageous, and dangerous” for the city and for the “safety of all our residents.”
“Very brave of you to post this since it is entirely your fault,” the D.C. police union replied.
Other commenters posted Allen’s previous X post, written during racial protests in 2020, in which he celebrated a 200-officer drop in the number of Metropolitan police officers. That drop in police, he wrote, allows the city to “reinvest those funds elsewhere.”
Asked by AFN to describe Washington, D.C. and crime, Maginnis called life there a “study in contrasts.”
That’s because well-travelled tourist spots such as the National Mall, and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, have a heavy law enforcement presence because of Metropolitan police officers and federal law enforcement. There are many other areas, however, that residents and “savvy” visitors know to avoid, especially after dark. So your safety is “highly dependent” on location, time of day, and situational awareness.
“The idea that ‘no place is safe’ overstates the reality—there are stable and low-crime areas—but also ignores that crime can and does occur in even well-guarded districts,” Maginnis advised.
In an X post that published before Trump’s press conference, White House communications director Steven Cheung reminded reporters that Michael Pulliam, a Metropolitan police commander, was suspended in May for allegedly falsifying crime statistics. The manipulated data made it appear crime rates had fallen in the city's 3rd District.
