Trump Floats Federal Takeover of DC

President Donald Trump floated the idea of the federal government taking over Washington, D.C., saying that crime would go way down.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump was asked how he wanted Republican voters to vote in the upcoming New York City mayoral election. Trump described Democrat socialist Zohran Mamdani, who is running for mayor of NYC, as a “communist” and stated that he “used to say” that the United States would “not ever be a socialist country.”

“I’ll say it again. We’re not going to have — if a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same,” Trump said. “But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to. We could run D.C. We’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well.”

Trump added that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was “working very closely” with Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“Susie Wiles is working very closely with the mayor, and they’re doing all right,” Trump continued. “I mean, in the sense that we would run it so good, it would be run so proper. We’d get the best person to run it; the crime would be down to a minimal — it would be much less. We’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you, we want a capital that’s run flawlessly. And it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”

In response to Trump’s comments, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) pointed out that it was “time to deal” Washington, DC’s Home Rule and to have “DC’s law made by Congress.”

“As President Trump seems to be contemplating, it’s time to repeal “DC Home Rule,” and have DC’s laws made by Congress—consistent with Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution,” Lee wrote in a post on X. “I have a bill, the BOWSER ACT, that would do precisely that. Make DC Safe Again!”

In February 2025, Lee and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act, that would overturn the District of Columbia’s home rule, the Daily Caller reported.

Trump has suggested before that the federal government “should govern the District of Columbia,” adding that the government “should run it strong, run it with law and order” and “make it absolutely flawless.”

In a list of the “Safest Cities in America” for 2025 from WalletHub, Washington, DC, was ranked at 172 out of the 182 cities rated.

As of July 8, 2025, burglaries in the city have decreased year-to-date 12 percent from 2024, while motor vehicle thefts in the city have gone up one percent year-to-date from 2024 to 2025, according to a preliminary report from the Metropolitan Police Department website.