IN NOT MY pres drumpf's / trump's world an attack by teens on one fellow fascist fotze known as "big balls" (if they actually were he wouldn't have been bloodied) little eddie coristine warrants taking over D.C. BUT if you attack the U.S. Capital Building, assault the Capital Police and call for the lynching of the Vice President he won't do a damn thing (but then why would he try to stop the insurrection he started?). Actually the neo-nazi, fascist drumpf / trump-vance administration and the fascist gop / greed over people-republican party are correct in describing the city as unsafe.Consider the friends and "party" participants of epstein and maxwell living in the bigly white house on Pennsylvania Avenue, tourist with young children, especially young girls, need to be warned to stay away from that part of the city until all the criminals there are rounded up and jailed.This from the Washington Post.....
Although Congress has ultimate authority over D.C., any attempt by federal lawmakers to repeal or alter the 1973 Home Rule Act would not be straightforward.
Updated August 6, 2025
The attempted carjacking of a former U.S. DOGE Service staffer in D.C. prompted President Donald Trump to this week call once again for a federal takeover of the nation’s capital.
Trump, who has long derided the Democratically-controlled city as “filthy and crime-ridden,” has made more threats to D.C.’s right to self-govern than any other president in modern history — looking at taking control of the D.C. police force during a bout of protests during his first term and making a campaign promise to “take over the horribly run capital of our nation.” Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday that he now may have “no choice” but to take over the city, following the incident with the former DOGE staffer, whom police identified as Edward Coristine. He doubled down on Wednesday, telling reporters that he was considering taking over the D.C. police department and calling the National Guard in to the city.
The president cannot federalize the District by executive edict — the move would have to go through Congress, and Democrats could block it — but he does have direct authority in some areas, including over the D.C. police force and National Guard.
Here’s what to know.
Why is Trump threatening a federal takeover of D.C. now?
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Coristine, known as “Big Balls,” was injured in an attempted carjacking Sunday in which about 10 juveniles approached him and another person as they were standing next to their vehicle around 3 a.m., according to a police report.
The report said the juveniles “demanded the vehicle and assaulted one of the victims.” During the assault, a D.C. police cruiser “pulled into the block causing the suspects to flee,” police said. Officers stopped two suspects, police said in a news release, and arrested a boy and a girl, both 15, from Maryland, charging them with unarmed carjacking.
Overall, violent crime is down 26 percent in the District compared with 2024, according to D.C. police data. But when Trump referenced the attempted carjacking in a Truth Social post Tuesday, he described crime in D.C. as “out of control.” The post was accompanied by an image of a young person smeared in blood, sitting shirtless on the ground.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its 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,” Trump wrote.
On Wednesday, Trump was asked during a news conference whether he would take over D.C.’s police department. Trump said he was “considering” it.
“That includes bringing in the National Guard — maybe very quickly, too,” Trump said. The reporter then asked whether Trump wanted Congress to overturn home rule — D.C.’s right to limited self-governance. “The lawyers are already studying it,” the president replied.
What has Trump previously said about federalizing D.C.?
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While on the campaign trail, Trump promised to “take over the horribly run capital of our nation in Washington, D.C., and clean it up, renovate it and rebuild our capital city so there is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime.”
He reaffirmed that promise in February, when he said in response to a reporter’s question aboard Air Force One: “We should govern D.C.”
In March, Trump signed an executive order establishing the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force,” a vehicle for his long-held focus on quality-of-life issues in the city, including homeless encampments and graffiti, in addition to his broader mission to ramp up deportations and arrests nationwide.
How could the federal government take over D.C.?
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The most straightforward way for Trump to federalize D.C. would be through an act of Congress — which has ultimate oversight of the District, according to the Constitution.
But it would require overturning the 1973 Home Rule Act, which puts much of D.C.’s governing authority in the hands of its residents, who have the power to elect a mayor and council members.
Politically, repealing the law would be challenging. Republicans do not have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, meaning Democrats — despite being in the minority — would probably be able to block any legislation seeking to revoke or alter Home Rule. In February, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tennessee) introduced legislation to repeal Home Rule entirely.
Beyond revoking Home Rule, federal lawmakers have other ways of interfering in D.C. affairs. They include budget riders, provisions that are attached to must-pass spending bills. Two long-standing examples are riders that prevent the District from regulating the recreational marijuana market and using local funds to subsidize abortion care. In addition, Congress can overturn laws passed by the D.C. Council, a power it invoked in 2023 when the Senate voted to block a major overhaul of the city’s criminal code.
Beyond Congress, the president wields direct authority over the District in certain limited areas — offering ways to exert influence that fall short of a full federal takeover.
Trump has the power to call up the D.C. National Guard and deploy it without local consent, for example. That sets the District apart from the states, where that power falls to the governor.
The Home Rule Act also gives the president the authority to temporarily take over the District’s police department. Trump can order the mayor to provide the federal government with D.C. police services in “special conditions of an emergency … as the President may deem necessary and appropriate.”
Commandeering the D.C. police force would mark an unprecedented exercise of federal power over a major American city.
Trump threatened to invoke the emergency authority in 2020, when nationwide protests erupted against police violence after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis officers, but D.C. leaders persuaded White House officials to reconsider.
What is the history of ‘home rule’ in D.C.?
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D.C. residents first got a voice in their local government in 1820, when Congress amended the D.C. charter to allow White male landowners, and later all White men, to vote for mayor. In 1867, Radical Republicans in Congress granted the local vote to Black men, too, provoking a backlash, and in 1874, Congress revoked home rule for everyone in the District.
Until the passage of the Home Rule Act in 1973, the District was ruled by unelected leaders appointed by the president.
After World War II, various proposals were floated for Home Rule. In 1948, Democratic President Harry S. Truman included it in a 10-point civil rights proposal, a position shared by his Republican successor Dwight D. Eisenhower. (In 1961, the ratification of the 23rd Amendment gave D.C. residents the right to vote in presidential elections.)
Home rule picked up momentum in the early ’70s after the electoral defeat of House District Committee Chairman John McMillan, a South Carolina Democrat whom many Black community leaders accused of racism. McMillan blamed his 1972 primary loss on Black opposition. “The colored people were bought out,” he said.
After the Senate passed multiple home rule bills, the House approved legislation in October 1973. “The District of Columbia is a unique combination of federal and local concerns, each of which must be satisfied,” President Richard M. Nixon (R) said as he signed the bill into law two months later. “All in all, I believe this legislation skillfully balances the local interest and the national interest in the way the District of Columbia is governed.”
By Vivian Ho
Vivian is a breaking-news reporter in The Washington Post’s London hub, covering news as it unfolds in the United States and around the globe during overnight and early-morning hours in Washington. She previously worked for the Guardian US and the San Francisco Chronicle and is the author of “Those Who Wander: America’s Lost Street Kids.”
By Leo Sands
Leo Sands is a breaking-news reporter and editor in The Washington Post’s London Hub, covering news as it unfolds around the world.
Jenny Gathright covers the D.C. government and city politics on The Post's Metro desk. Before coming to The Post in 2024, she reported on the District for WAMU 88.5 and DCist.com, mostly about criminal justice and public safety.
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