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President Donald Trump on Friday escalated his feud with Washington, D.C., leaders, warning that he may impose a full federal takeover of the nation’s capital if Mayor Muriel Bowser does not stop providing what he called “false and highly inaccurate crime figures.”
“Mayor Muriel Bowser must immediately stop giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures, or bad things will happen, including a complete and total federal takeover of the city!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Washington, D.C. will soon be great again!”
The president added that the federal intervention already underway is showing results.
“Washington, D.C. is SAFE AGAIN! The crowds are coming back, the spirit is high, and our D.C. National Guard and Police are doing a fantastic job. They are out in force, and are NOT PLAYING GAMES!!! As bad as it sounds to say, there were no murders this week for the first time in memory,” he continued.
Last week, Trump directed Bowser to provide the services of the Metropolitan Police Department “for federal purposes” and ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to mobilize the D.C. National Guard. The moves are part of a broader federal crackdown on crime and homelessness in the capital.
Trump has repeatedly floated the possibility of placing the city under direct federal control. Earlier this month, he warned that if local officials “don’t get their act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take federal control of the city, and run this city how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”
In a Thursday interview with Newsmax, Trump called the D.C. takeover a “test” that could be applied to other cities struggling with crime. “We’re doing a sort of a test right now in D.C. It’s working unbelievably, much faster than we thought,” he said on “The Todd Starnes Show,” later re-aired on “Greg Kelly Reports.”
“We’ve arrested hundreds of criminals — hard-line criminals, people that will never be any good, I don’t care what they say. We got them out of the system. And, you know, unfortunately, we have a lot of cities like that.”
Trump later visited a law enforcement command center in the city to thank officers for their work. He also said he planned to join a “secret patrol” with police on Thursday night.
“I’ve straightened out crime in four days in D.C.,” Trump said. “All they do is say, ‘He’s a dictator.’ The people are getting mugged all over the place. But we’ve got it going. People are so happy. They’re going out to restaurants again. I mean, they’re so happy.”