After a decade of threatening to take over the deeply Democratic District of Columbia, President Donald Trump on Monday announced he would exert more federal control over the capital city by taking command of its police department and declaring a public safety emergency.
Trump used a late-morning news conference at the White House to announce he had signed orders and letters to place the Washington Metropolitan Police Department under his control by invoking Section 740 of the 1973 Home Rule Act. The president also announced he would activate hundreds of D.C. National Guard troops to assist local and federal law enforcement. Those troops should be in place later this week. Attorney General Pam Bondi now has direct control over MPD, with Terrance “Terry” Cole, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, installed Monday as the interim MPD commissioner.
The president called violent crime, car thefts, homelessness and uncleanliness in the District “out of control,” adding from the lectern in the White House briefing room: “We’re going to take our capital back.”
