If former President Donald Trump takes back the White House, he says he wants the federal government to take control of the D.C. government.
Trump’s latest threat comes after the D.C. shooting death of former Trump administration official Michael Gill – the first victim of a string of random crimes last week.
“People are coming here and they're getting shot. They come here for an evening – ‘I want to see the Lincoln Memorial. I want to see something. I want to see something so beautiful. I want to look at the Capitol building. I want to look at the White House.’ And they go home in a casket,” he said.
“We have to make our capitol safe, and we have to make it clean and respected and beautiful, and that’s part of my plan,” Trump continued. “And we're gonna run it through the federal government, and it's gonna be run very tough and very smart and very safe.”
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Speaking to reporters last week in D.C., the former president took aim at high crime rates in big, Democratic-run cities including Chicago, New York and the District.
“It's a crime fest right now, and we can't have that,” he said.
When talking about big-city crime, Trump has suggested using the National Guard. When it comes to D.C., he wants to go even further and take control of the D.C. government away from the mayor and the D.C. Council and give it to the federal government.
In a post to Truth Social after the shooting death of Gill, Trump renewed his threat, writing: “The federal government must take over D.C.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser reacted on Monday to the ex-president’s remarks.
“I think it’s kinda disgusting to use this person’s death in that way, and we won’t engage in it,” she said.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson also weighed in.
“I think we’ve all figured out by now, that there’s a lot of bluster that comes from the former president. That doesn’t mean that it’s of no concern. I don’t really want to dignify his comments with a response. Nonetheless, we are able to pass our budgets on time,” he said. “[…] Our finances are among the strongest in the country […] We are running a very, very good government.”
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This all comes as the D.C. Council is expected to take its first vote on sweeping crime legislation on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, Council member Brooke Pinto released an updated version of the crime bill that has changes to some of the more controversial provisions. Mendelson told reporters the changes address concerns over the loosening of restrictions on neck holds, police chases and the implementation of drug-free zones.
