President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he is deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under federal control to address staggering crime rates in the city.
“This is liberation day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back. We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States, I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, you know what that is, and placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control,” Trump said, adding, “In addition, I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, DC, and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.”
Last year, Washington, D.C. had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country at 27.3 per 100,000 residents. The staggering rate was nearly six times higher than New York City and also higher than Atlanta, Chicago, and Compton.
“We’re the most beautiful, potentially, capital in the world. we always had. But people come from Iowa, they come from Indiana, they come and then they get mugged. Not going to happen. Keep coming, because within — by the time you get your trip set, it’s going to be safe again, and it’s going to be clean very quickly,” Trump continued. “We’re going to replace the medians that are falling down all over the roads. We’re going to replace the potholes. We’re going to put a nice new coat of asphalt over the top. No, we don’t have to rip the road out and spend seven years building a new road because they cut everything, because some designers said, well, we need a quarter of an inch more turn for safety reasons.”
