WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will hold a news conference this morning about making Washington, D.C. “safer and more beautiful,” he announced on Truth Social on Sunday.
The president said the subject of news conference will “not only involve ending the Crime, Murder, and Death in our Nation’s Capital, but will also be about Cleanliness and the General Physical Renovation and Condition of our once beautiful and well maintained Capital.”
The event comes a week after the president again threatened a federal takeover of D.C. following an alleged assault on Edward Coristine, an original Department of Government Efficiency staffer known online as “Big Balls,” in an attempted carjacking.
In recent days, the president boosted the federal law enforcement presence in D.C., which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt framed as a “first step in stopping the violent crime that has been plaguing the streets of Washington, DC.”
Trump also has the authority to take control of the local police, but Congress would need to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act, which granted D.C. limited self-governance, in order for Trump to enact a full federal takeover.
The president is also said to be considering ordering the National Guard into the district, which could be announced today, according to a defense official and two U.S. officials.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said in an MSNBC interview yesterday that she thinks Trump will announce he is surging federal law enforcement in the capital and pushed back on the assertion that D.C. is riddled with crime.
“If the priority is to show force in an American city, we know [Trump] can do that here, but it won’t be because there’s a spike in crime,” Bowser said.
D.C. police data indicate that violent crime has decreased 26% compared to last year. The D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office also announced in January that violent crime in D.C. in 2024 was at a 30-year low, citing police data.
The president said on Truth Social that he would also discuss plans to make the district “more beautiful than it ever was before,” which would include removing homeless people from the city.
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”
In a separate post to Truth Social, Trump indicated he would also focus on “the Cleanliness and the General Physical Renovation and Condition of our once beautiful and well maintained Capital.” He then referred to the renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters, which he has previously criticized, saying it “could have been done in a far more elegant and time sensitive manner” for far less money.
Monica Alba, Vaughn Hillyard, Courtney Kube and Gordon Lubold contributed.