Trump Warns of Federal Takeover if D.C. Mayor Fails to Address Crime

President Donald Trump on Friday raised the prospect of removing Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser if she does not address crime levels in the city.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said that his federal takeover of the nation’s capital has already produced significant results.

He noted that Washington has seen “the lowest crime numbers” in years, including no murders since the intervention began.

Trump’s Sovereign Wealth Fund: What Could It Mean For Your Money?

Trump added that a “full federal takeover” could be imposed if Bowser does not act.

“And Mayor Bowser better get her act straight or she won’t be mayor [for] very long because we’ll take it over with the federal government and run it like it’s supposed to be run,” Trump said.

“The numbers were horrible, [Washington] 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.”

This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year

[esi random_video_player ttl=”0″]

The federal crime crackdown in Washington, which began on August 11, has involved both the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the National Guard.

U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro announced Friday that authorities have arrested 719 people since the effort began and seized 91 illegal firearms.

Among those taken into custody were several illegal immigrants with criminal convictions, including an MS-13 gang member.

Law enforcement data shows that nearly half of these arrests occurred in Wards 7 and 8, which accounted for almost 60% of homicides in the district in 2024.

Washington recorded the fourth-highest murder rate in the country that year, exceeding both New York City and Chicago, according to research by the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Questions remain over how crime numbers are being reported. Washington Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Tuesday that officers in the MPD had been instructed not to report certain crimes in order to manipulate statistics.

This claim aligns with a lawsuit previously filed by former Sergeant Charlotte Djossou, who alleged in 2020 that the MPD downgraded serious offenses such as theft and assault with a deadly weapon into misdemeanors.

Djossou said the practice allowed the department to exclude these incidents from its official crime data. The MPD later settled the case quietly.

The department has stated that violent crime decreased by 26% since 2024.

However, the FBI, which counts aggravated and felony assaults that MPD excludes, has reported that violent crime dropped by 10% during the same period.

Mayor Bowser has opposed Trump’s federal intervention in the city.

At a press conference on August 11, she criticized the move and reiterated her call for statehood for the district.