In the last decade, Washington, D.C., has seen a spike in violent crimes as Democrats have taken control over the city. In 2023, D.C. had a homicide rate of 40.9 per 100,000 residents, which ranked 4th in the nation. President Trump has now floated an idea of potentially fixing this problem. During his recent Cabinet meeting at the White House, the 47th President hinted that the federal government could take over D.C. ABC News had more on Trump’s potential takeover of D.C.: President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested a federal takeover of New York City and Washington. The comments came when Trump, during a meeting of his Cabinet at the White House, was asked about New York City’s upcoming mayoral election. Trump attacked Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, and ticked through the other contenders, including Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, though he declined to endorse anyone. “We’re not going to have — if a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same. But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to,” Trump said. Trump didn’t elaborate on what authority that would be as he then turned his focus to the nation’s capital. “We could run D.C. We’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well,” he said. He said his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was working with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser. Watch Trump say it below: President Trump floats a federal takeover of New York City, should Zohran Mamdani be elected mayor, and says the administration could test a takeover of Washington, D.C. “We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to.” pic.twitter.com/sfz73MvWgO — The Recount (@therecount) July 8, 2025 This isn’t the first time Trump has called for a federal takeover of D.C.. Take a look: I listened to Trumps speech again and check out what he says here Trump Talks About a Federal Takeover of Washington DC & Says “This is Just a Large Real Estate Deal” “And I want to do a federal takeover of Washington DC, to stop and the crime and to make it great again,… pic.twitter.com/Eh8KuyhHm9 — MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) October 12, 2023 WTOP reported the reality on what steps Trump would need to make in order for the federal government to takeover D.C.: Trump can’t do it alone. Congress, with both houses controlled by Republicans, could absolutely vote to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act. That would be a deeply controversial vote which would likely test the strength of the three-seat GOP majority in the House of Representatives. Local government officials have been quietly predicting some sort of executive order imposing stiffer criminal penalties or a crackdown on homeless encampments, but a full “ takeover” would still require an act of Congress. He could theoretically take over the Metropolitan Police Department — something that was considered during the 2020 mass protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Justin Hansford, a professor at D.C.’s Howard University School of Law, said such a step would need some sort of “justifying emergency.” Trump’s perspective on what constitutes such an emergency, Hansford said, “would absolutely be challenged in court.”