OUT OF CONTROL

Trump’s Unhinged D.C. Post: ‘The White House Is in Charge’

The president is continuing his crusade against what he argues is uncontrollable crime in the capital.

President Donald Trump has doubled down on his campaign against crime in Washington, D.C., with another Truth Social post in which he boldly proclaimed: “The White House is in charge.”

The post, published on Wednesday night, repeats many of the same talking points Trump used—and was subsequently criticized for—at the Monday press conference where he announced his decision to federalize D.C. police.

In it, Trump argues, “Washington, D.C., has one of the Highest Rates of Crime in the World, more than many of the most violent Third World Countries.”

He continues, ”The City’s Homicide Rate is higher than places notorious for their violence, such as Mexico City, Bogota, Islamabad, and Addis Ababa — Almost ten times higher than Fallujah, Iraq.”

”If D.C. were a State, it would have the highest Homicide Rate of any State in America.”

In the lengthy post, Trump continued to detail the number of ways crime has reportedly taken hold in D.C., including “gang youth violence” that is ”so common it goes largely unreported” and the fact that citizens living in fear have given up on calling the police, “lest they be targeted.”

He ended his screed with, “D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs.”

”The White House is in charge. The Military and our Great Police will liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!”

Following the Monday press conference where he made similar claims, news outlets were quick to check the veracity of his statements. PolitiFact noted that the data Trump was referring to was from 2023, and that D.C.’s homicide rate has fallen “considerably” since then.

In 2024, D.C.’s homicide rate was 27.3 per 100,000 people, with a Justice Department press release issued in early January prior to Trump’s inauguration noting that violent crime in the district was down 35 percent, making it the lowest it has been in over 30 years.

The New York Times’ report on Trump’s claims explains that 49 cities around the world have higher homicide rates than D.C., including three capital cities and six other U.S. cities, including St. Louis, New Orleans and Detroit.

Determining that Trump’s claim that D.C.’s homicide rate was “number one that we can find anywhere in the world” was false, PolitiFact wrote, ”Trump stretched an outdated homicide rate into an inaccurate blanket statement.”

Of his decision to federalize D.C. police and deploy the National Guard, Trump told reporters on Wednesday, “I don’t want to call a national emergency. If I have to I will. But I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously.”

Under Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, the president can take emergency control of D.C.’s police, but unless Congress passes a law extending the president’s control, it lasts only 30 days.

Trump confirmed to reporters that he would be seeking “long term extensions” on these powers, adding that in the long term, “We’re going to need a crime bill that we’re going to be putting in, and it’s going to pertain initially to DC.”

Tuesday night’s deployment of officers on the city saw 43 arrests, according to The Guardian, a smaller number than the 76 arrests that day. Agency data gathered in the report suggested an average of 56 daily arrests in 2024. A White House official warned that “significantly higher” numbers of National Guard troops were expected in coming days, including 24-hour patrols by federal agents.

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Catherine BourisReporter

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