President Donald Trump took an extraordinary move Monday to make good on his commitment to law and order, announcing the federal government would takeover policing Washington D.C.

During a raucous White House press conference, Trump announced the federalization of the D.C. police force and the deployment of hundreds of national guard troops to streets in order to ‘rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.’

‘We’re going to take our capitol back,’ he added. 

Flanked by cabinet members Attorney General Pam Bondi, US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Interior Director Doug Burgum, Trump said he would instruct federal law enforcement officials to deploy aggressive tactics against the city’s worst offenders. 

‘You spit and we hit and we can hit real hard,’ he said. 

The president also vowed to clear out camps of homeless people from Washington, DC parks and public lands. 

Federal law officials began their citywide deployment over the weekend, ramping up a public display of force that was seen immediately by residents. 

‘Our Capital City has been overtaken by violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore,’ he said. ‘We’re not going to take it.’

The plan was in part vengeance for ‘Big Balls.’ 

Around 3 a.m. on Sunday, August 3, Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old former Department of Government Efficiency employee, was the victim of an attempted carjacking near the popular 14th Street nightlife corridor. 

‘He was left dripping in blood. He thought he was dead with a broken nose and concussion. Can’t believe that he’s alive,’ Trump said.

The neighborhood is known for political hotspots like Le Diplomate – a favorite of former President Joe Biden –  beer gardens, bars and the nightclub Black Cat. 

Police said a group of teenagers approached Coristine and a female companion and demanded his vehicle. 

Coristine, who now works for the Social Security Administration, pushed the woman into his car before he was assaulted. 

Since the attack, two 15-year-olds not from D.C. – but from nearby Hyattsville, Maryland – were arrested and charged with unarmed carjacking. 

The president also highlighted recent horrific crimes in the city including a 21-year-old congressional intern who was hit by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting and killed, a former Trump administration official murdered in a carjacking, and a Democratic congressman who was carjacked at gunpoint.

Trump also recalled a ‘demented lunatic’ that stabbed an aide to Sen. Rand Paul in 2023 and a three-year-old girl who was shot and killed near the US Capitol while she was sitting in a car. 

In the same Truth Social post, the president demanded that teenagers involved in these types of crime be prosecuted as adults. 

‘They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now!’ Trump warned. 

The president’s claim that crime has spike has been contested by the D.C.’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has pointed to stats that show violent crime has decreased in the District since 2023. 

Violent crime in DC is down 26 percent this year and in 2024 reached a 30-year low, with 190 homicides in 2024 compared to 274 in 2023, according to metro police department statistics.

‘The Mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive,’ Trump said in a Sunday night Truth Social post. 

In April, Bowser announced the creation of a special police force specifically to tackle underage crime. 

In an interview on MSNBC Sunday, she pushed back on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller saying that D.C. was ‘more violent than Baghdad.’

‘Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false,’ Bowser said.  

Trump has also threatened to ‘FEDERALIZE this City.’ 

Trump doesn’t have the unilateral power to do such a thing – it would take congressional action. 

Congress would need to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act, which allows DC residents to elect their mayor and city council. 

Despite having more residents than Vermont and Wyoming, DC lacks congressional representation due to its non-state status.

While Republicans control both chambers, a repeal would likely face a Democratic Senate filibuster and strong opposition from DC’s 700,000 residents. 

Nevertheless, Senator Mike Lee and Representative Andy Ogles introduced the “BOWSER Act” in February, which would repeal Home Rule one year after passage.