Despite the president’s claims, crime in D.C. has been down over the last two years.
By Kelsey Walsh and Tierra Cunningham
August 11, 2025, 8:21 AM
President Donald Trump held a news conference Monday to reveal plans he's said "will, essentially, stop violent crime in Washington, D.C."
"We're here for a very serious purpose. Very serious, very," Trump said. "Something's out of control. But we're going to put it in control very quickly, like we did in the southern border. I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse. This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back."
He said he was declaring a public safety emergency, putting the Washington police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard.
Trump announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi will be taking command of the Metropolitan Police Department and DEA Administrator Terry Cole will be interim federal commissioner of the department.
He delivered his message standing beside Bondi, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, U. S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, FBI Director Kash Patel and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum who will all play a role in the takeover Trump announced.
"Let me be crystal clear. Crime in DC is ending and ending today. We are going to use every power we have to fight criminals here," Bondi said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump during a news conference to discuss crime in Washington, DC, in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, August 11, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
"Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people," Trump said.
"We're going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can't walk on," he said. "They've been very, very dirty, very -- got a lot of problems. But we've already started that. We're moving the encampments away, trying to take care of people. Some of those people, we don't know how they even got there. And some of those people are from different countries, different parts of the world. Nobody knows who they are. They have no idea."
He continued, "But they're there getting rid of the people from underpasses and public spaces from all over the city. There are many places that they can go, and we're going to help them as much as you can help. But they'll not be allowed to turn our capital into a wasteland for the world to see,"
The president promoted the news conference in multiple posts on his social media platform and on Sunday posted that it would "also be about Cleanliness and the General Physical Renovation and Condition of our once beautiful and well maintained Capital."
In a separate post, Trump said the homeless should leave D.C., accompanied by photos of homeless encampments along his route from the White House to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia.
"The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital," Trump wrote. "The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong."
The news conference comes after Trump last week ordered an increase in law enforcement as part of an executive order he signed in March to "Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful."
Contrary to the president's claim, preliminary year-to-date crime comparisons from Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department show that overall crime in D.C. has decreased by 7% since last year, with violent crime down 26% and property crime reduced by 5%.
A White House official said the law enforcement effort a "whole of government approach to improve overall public safety" and said that law enforcement will "be focused on high traffic tourist areas and other known hotspots."
The official added that federal officers "will be identified, in marked units, and highly visible."
Trump said Sunday that he has given D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser an opportunity to reduce crime rates but she has failed to do that.
MORE: 19-year-old former DOGE worker assaulted in DC carjacking attempt, say police
"The Mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive. The American Public is not going to put up with it any longer," he claimed.
FBI and Border Patrol officers arrest a man along the U Street corridor during a federal law enforcement deployment to the nation's capital, August 10, 2025 in Washington.
Andrew Leyden/Getty Images
Bowser said Sunday that Washington has spent the last two years driving down violent crime, “driving it down to a 30 year low, in fact.”
“It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023, this is 2025 and we've done that by working with the community, working with the police, working with our prosecutors, and, in fact, working with the federal government," Bowser told MSNBC.
A U.S. Capitol Police office enters his car parked on the sidewalk near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 8, 2025. President Donald Trump ordered on Aug. 7 to use federal law enforcement to combat crime in Washington.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
On Saturday, Trump said the nation’s capital has become “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.”
Last week he threatened to deploy the National Guard to D.C. and, as he has on several occasions since he was inaugurated in January, suggested that there should be a federal takeover.
That call came after Edward Coristine, a former Department of Government Efficiency employee, was beaten after he tried to break up a carjacking in D.C.
The seven-day law enforcement effort is being led by the U.S. Park Police but includes personnel from the Metro Transit Police Department, Amtrak Police Department, United States Capitol Police, Washington’s Metro Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, Federal Protective Service, Enforcement and Removal Operations, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, United States Marshals Service, United States Attorney’s Office-District of Columbia, Department of Interior, Pre-Trial Services Agency, Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA), the White House official said.
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