On Monday morning, President Donald Trump held a White House press conference to announce measures the Trump administration is taking to get the nation’s capital city under control. The administration will be taking some major steps to make the District of Columbia clean and safe again.
When the president entered the room, though, his first comment was about a ballroom: “I think we need a ballroom.” That’s an interesting place to open.
Flanked by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the president described several steps that will be taken to address the mess that is our capital city.
The president stated, “This is Liberation Day in D.C.” Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, placing D.C.’s law enforcement under direct federal control. Two executive orders have been issued to get the effort underway.
The first, titled “Declaring a Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia,” states in part:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 740 of the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act (Public Law 93-198), as amended (section 740 of the Home Rule Act), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Crime is out of control in the District of Columbia. Washington, District of Columbia, is our Nation’s capital and home to the central institutions of American governance. Yet rising violence in the capital now urgently endangers public servants, citizens, and tourists, disrupts safe and secure transportation and the proper functioning of the Federal Government, and forces the diversion of critical public resources toward emergency response and security measures. The city government’s failure to maintain public order and safety has had a dire impact on the Federal Government’s ability to operate efficiently to address the Nation’s broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence.