Trump is promising new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington

Washington – Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump promises new steps to combat roaming and crime in Washington, which prompted the mayor of the city to express his concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets of the national capital.

Trump wrote in an article on social networks that he would hold a press conference at the White House on Monday to discuss his plans for the Columbia district “safer and more beautiful than it has ever been before”.

“The homeless must move, immediately,” Trump wrote on Sunday. “We will give you places to stay, but far from the capital. Criminals, you don’t have to move. We are going to put you in prison where you belong. ”

Last week, the Republican President ordered the law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the possibility of “stretching if necessary”.

Friday evening, federal agencies, including the secret services, the FBI and the US Marshals Service, affected more than 120 officers and agents to help Washington.

Trump said last week that he was considering means for the federal government to take control of Washington, saying that crime was “ridiculous” and that the city was “dangerous”, after the recent assault of a high -level member of the government’s Ministry of Efficiency.

The movements that Trump said he was considering including bringing the DC National Guard.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of the use of the guard to enforce the laws of the city and declared that the federal government could be much more useful by funding more prosecutors or by winning the 15 vacant posts on the DC Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.

Bowser cannot activate the National Guard itself, but it can submit a request to the Pentagon.

“I just think that this is not the most effective use of our guard,” she said on Sunday on “The Weekend” of MSNBC, recognizing that it is “the president’s call on how to deploy the goalkeeper”.

Bowser was making his first public comments since Trump began to publish on crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crimes in Washington have decreased since an increase in 2023.

For Bowser, “any comparison with a country torn by war is hyperbolic and false”.

Police statistics show that homicides, thefts and burglaries are decreasing this year compared to this period in 2024. Overall, violent crimes are down 26% compared to that time a year ago.

Trump did not offer any details in the truth about social messages during the weekend on new possible actions to tackle the crime levels he maintains to be dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers. The White House refused to offer additional details on the announcement on Monday.

The police service and the mayor’s office did not answer questions about what Trump could do next.

The president criticized the district as full of “tents, misery, dirt and crime”, and he seems to have been triggered by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the effort to reduce the bureaucracy known as the Doge. Police arrested two 15 -year -olds in the attempted car diversion and said they were looking for others.

“It must be the best place in the country, not the worst race in the country,” said Trump on Wednesday.

He called Bowser “a good person who tried, but she has received many chances”.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that the Washington rule could be returned to the federal authorities. This would require the 1973 law on the rule of the domicile in Congress, a step that Trump said that lawyers were examining. He could face a steep decline.

Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city’s police, but only if certain conditions are met.

“None of these conditions exist in our city right now,” she said. “We do not know an increase in crime. In fact, we look at our crime figures drop. ”

___

The writers of the associated press Ashraf Khalil and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.