President Donald Trump threatened Friday that his administration would completely take over Washington, D.C., if Mayor Muriel Bowser doesn’t stop saying that crime was down in the city before the recent surge of federal agents and National Guard troops.
“I’m tired of listening to these people saying how safe it was before we got here. It was unsafe. It was horrible. And Mayor Bowser better get her act straight or she won’t be mayor very long because we’ll take it over with the federal government, run it like it’s supposed to be run,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Early Friday morning on Truth Social, Trump said, “Washington, D.C. is SAFE AGAIN! … As bad as it sounds to say, there were no murders this week for the first time in memory. Mayor Muriel Bowser must immediately stop giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures, or bad things will happen, including a complete and total Federal takeover of the City! Washington D.C. will soon be great again!!!”
It is true that crime is down. However, it’s not the first week in memory without a homicide in D.C.
Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) statistics show the city went 16 days without a homicide in late February and early March.
Can Trump ‘takeover’ D.C.?
To overturn the DC Home Rule Act, the congressional act that allows D.C. to govern itself with a mayor and council, Congress would have to approve doing so. It would take 60 votes in the Senate if Congress takes up the matter when it gets back to D.C. in September. But it’s unlikely to get that many votes.
The president could also reinstate the Control Board, a five-member federal authority that would run the city. It’s never been tested, but some legal and D.C. experts think Trump could reinstate the board by executive order.
The Control Board was put in place by former President Bill Clinton during his administration, because the District had fallen into financial hardship. It controlled the city’s government from 1995 until 2001.
Bowser said recently that D.C. has had a balanced budget for 30 straight years.
But some D.C. experts News4 spoke to say control boards aren’t limited to financial reasons. This would give the president’s appointees total control of the city, including the day-to-day operations of D.C. government, giving D.C.’s mayor and Council very little power.
News4’s Mark Segraves reported last July that the Control Board never went away, but just went dormant. If the president declared a fiscal or crime emergency, he could appoint five members to that board, which could then overturn any law that the D.C. Council passed.
D.C.’s crime stats
Bowser and other local officials have pushed back on the president’s claims about D.C. crime, saying that violent crime dropped significantly after a rise in 2023.
The Trump administration has repeatedly questioned the MPD’s crime statistics.
In mid-July, News4 reported Commander Michael Pulliam was under investigation for possibly manipulating crime stats in the police department’s 3rd district.
Trump put News4’s reporting in the spotlight Aug. 11, when he federalized the District’s police department. He brought up the allegations against Pulliam at a news conference, and the White House linked to News4’s reporting in a press release titled “Yes, D.C. crime is out of control.”
The Justice Department is now investigating whether MPD manipulated crime data to make crime rates appear lower. MPD Police Chief Pamela Smith said the department will cooperate in the investigation.
The D.C. police union said changing crime stats was common in the department to make it appear violent crime had fallen considerably.
Bowser defended MPD’s numbers Wednesday.
“We know that crime has gone down in our city, and it has gone down precipitously over the last two years because of a lot of hard work, changes to our public safety ecosystem, including changes to the law, and we know those facts don’t comport to what some people are saying,” the mayor said.
In Trump’s comments Friday, he reiterated his belief that D.C.’s crime stats are false.
“The numbers were horrible. It was a crime-infested rat hole. And they do have a lot of rats; we’re getting rid of them too. And we’ve made a lot of progress and it was extremely unsafe and now it’s extremely safe,” he said.
News4 has reached out to Bowser’s office for comment, but hasn’t heard back yet.
Stay with News4 for updates to this developing story.
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