President Trump is ramping up his power grab over Washington, D.C., on everything from the city’s law enforcement to a takeover of its transportation hub and key cultural center.
He’s called for the death penalty in D.C. murder cases, cleared out homeless encampments, and is promising to fix everything from fences to light fixtures in what he calls a “beautification” of the city.
On Wednesday, his Transportation secretary also announced a takeover of managing Union Station, where National Guard troops have been stationed for weeks.
It marked the latest escalation by Trump to encroach on the city’s key institutions and landmarks, and that timing, according to a source close to Trump World, is no coincidence ahead of Congress coming back.
“Trump is on very firm political footing on this issue. September brings its own set of challenges as shutdown talk begins to dominate,” the source said.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has so far tried to portray a cordial relationship with federal officials. Bowser said she spoke to Trump on Wednesday and expressed support for the administration’s management of Union Station as well as investing in city infrastructure.
“I was reminded that the president’s interest in cities predates his time in office, and his knowledge of D.C. had significantly increased from the first time he was in the White House,” Bowser said at a briefing.
The president announced a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department earlier this month, deploying National Guard troops across the city. Since then, he has touted the major success he thinks federal law enforcement has had in making the nation’s capital safer.
While congressional Republicans have long toyed with extending federal control over D.C., it was an attack on a former employee of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency that proved a final straw.
The Home Rule Act allows the federal government to take control of the District’s police department, though the Trump administration has gone farther by sending federal agents, including those in immigration enforcement, around the city.
Trump has signaled he hopes D.C. will go even further on crime. He suggested on Tuesday that he will push for the death penalty in cases of murder in the city. The Supreme Court nullified capital punishment in 1972 in the District, and efforts to reinstate it in the years since have failed, but the federal government can have the authority to push for capital punishment in the District.
“Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment. … If somebody kills somebody in the capital — Washington, D.C. — we’re going to be seeking the death penalty and that’s a very strong preventative,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting, arguing that he has “no choice” but to make the move in D.C.
While he has threatened to go into other Democratic-run cities to curb crime, he has since called on local leaders to ask for his help instead. He also said on Wednesday that he was working on a crime bill with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), without giving further details on what one would entail.
The Transportation Department on Wednesday announced it would take over management of Union Station, a major transportation hub steps away from the Capitol that the department has owned for decades. Trump administration officials have cited Union Station as a source of crime and homelessness in the city.
“The president has been very concerned about crime in our nation’s capital. He wants a capital that is worthy of the greatest country that’s ever existed on the face of the Earth,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said of the move. “Which means a capital that’s clean, a capital that’s safe, and a capital that doesn’t have its parks overtaken by homelessness.”
Trump also has his hands in other aspects of the city beyond law and order.
Trump earlier this month launched a review of the Smithsonian museums, taking issue with 20 exhibits that his administration has argued are too “woke.” The move has drawn criticism from opponents who argue Trump is attempting to rewrite history.
The president has paid multiple visits to the Kennedy Center this month, once to announce the annual award honorees and share that he would host this year’s awards event, and a second time to review potential aesthetic changes. Trump earlier this year took control of the Kennedy Center board and made himself chair as he sought to remake the cultural center.
And Trump has indicated he plans to get involved in the minutiae of city management, telling reporters last week he would ask Congress for $2 billion for upgrades to beautify the District.
“So we’re going to be replacing medians, we’re going to be replacing much of the asphalt in the city, which is in bad shape,” Trump said.
He also said D.C. will be “maxed out in terms of beauty,” and he is aiming to make local parks “look like Augusta,” referring to the Georgia golf course that hosts the Masters.
“We’re going to be redoing all of your parks. And it’s going to happen fast. It’s going to go up like a miracle,” Trump said last week while visiting federal law enforcement officials.
But it’s not clear Trump’s efforts are entirely welcome in the deeply liberal city. Polling has shown a majority disapproves of Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in D.C., and some city residents have protested and heckled federal agents in their neighborhoods.
“I think D.C. residents are doing what I would expect from D.C. residents,” Bowser said Wednesday. “To be very focused on autonomy, local control and their neighbors. So I think D.C. residents are very concerned about each other, and they’re very concerned about their rights as Americans.”
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