The Trump administration is backing more legislation that would crack down on crime in the nation’s capital and support police, according to an official White House document obtained by The Daily Wire.  
In a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/SAP-HR5107-HR5214.pdf">statement of policy</a> from the Office of Management and Budget, the White House came out in support of a pair of Republican-backed bills that would require mandatory detention for certain violent crimes like armed robbery and removing cumbersome restrictions on police officers. Both proposals were advanced by the House Oversight Committee on Monday. 
“Together, these bills would hold criminals accountable and empower law enforcement officers,” the statement of policy said. “Their reforms would help make America’s Federal city more safe, free, and beautiful and critically advance the President’s broader law and order agenda.”
The policy statement indicated that the White House backed New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s the District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act of 2025 (HR 5214) and Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde’s Common-Sense Law Enforcement and Accountability Now in DC (CLEAN DC) Act of 2025 (HR 5107). 
Stefanik’s legislation would &#8220;require mandatory pretrial detention for defendants charged with certain enumerated public safety and order crimes. The movement to end cash bail and release dangerous criminals so they can commit more crimes is one of the primary reasons large cities have experienced so many repeat offenders and preventable tragedies. Washington, D.C. is a prime example and this bill will make the streets of our Federal city safer,” according to the statement of policy. 
Clyde’s legislation would “reverse unnecessary and detrimental restrictions placed on officers of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). For example, those restrictions include removing all officers and police union representatives from the Police Complaints Board, requiring juries to consider whether an officer consulted with mental health, behavioral health, or social workers before using deadly force, and imposing approval hurdles for the use of riot gear and less-lethal Projectiles.”
“Police officers are the backbone of any system of law enforcement, and treating them with suspicion and placing limits on their ability to take potentially life-saving action erodes trust, retention, and, ultimately, public safety,” the statement of policy added. “Removing these restrictions would help restore the effectiveness of the MPD and maintain law and order in Washington, D.C.”
Both bills are opposed by D.C.’s Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser and Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who claimed they were an “affront” to the “principles of democracy and local self-governance on which this country was founded.”
The Trump administration has surged federal law enforcement to D.C. to crack down on murder, homelessness, and car jackings. As part of this effort, he sent hundreds of National Guard troops to the capital to patrol crime-ridden neighborhoods.

National Guard in Washington D.C.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Backs Proposal To Punish Criminals, Support Police In D.C.

Crime

Donald Trump

House Oversight Committee

Muriel Bowser

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Washington D.C.

White House

The Department of Justice has reportedly opened a corruption probe into Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser over a Qatar-funded flight.
The mayor’s office said that it had not been notified of any investigation into the mayor’s travel. It confirmed the flight at the center of the reported probe, but said that all “proper paperwork for this standard donation is on file,” according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/us/politics/trump-muriel-bowser-qatar-investigation.html">The New York Times</a>.
“We have checked with our lawyers, and the District has not been notified of any investigation. This was a business trip; DC representatives regularly travel to promote Washington as a destination for investment and growth. This regular work has helped bring investment, infrastructure, new business, new grocery stores, growth, and jobs to the District,” Bowser’s office told <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-doj-investigation-muriel-bowser-dc-qatar-11007381">Newsweek</a> in a statement.
&#8220;In some cases, economic development funds are used for the business travel; in other cases, the host or organizer cover the expenses,” the statement continued.
The Justice Department reportedly began to scrutinize the mayor’s overseas travels after a local D.C. outlet, <a href="https://wjla.com/features/i-team/washington-dc-code-mayor-spending-travel-expenses-report-dubai-qatar-donation-agreement-luxury-vacation-climate-change-convention-taxpayer-dollars-chamber-of-commerce-middle-east-investigation">WJLA</a>, reported that Qatar paid $61,930 for flights to Doha for the mayor and four of her staff in 2023. Afterward, the mayor and her entourage jetted over to Dubai for a climate change conference.
Bowser kept poor records of her trip to Qatar and other jaunts in the United States and to other foreign countries, according to WJLA. At the time of the report, WJLA found no record of a donation agreement between the mayor’s office and Qatar, which is required by D.C. law.
When first questioned about the trip, Bowser’s office initially claimed that it has been covered by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce before telling reporters that the cost was actually borne by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. WJLA later discovered that the trip was in part funded by the Qatari government after obtaining documents through an open records request.

DC Mayor Under DOJ Investigation Over Qatar-Funded Flight

Courts

Department of Justice

U.S.

WASHINGTON — The White House is encouraging Democrat mayors across the United States to follow the lead of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who shared Tuesday that the nation&#8217;s capitol will continue to partner with President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Safe and Beautiful Task Force&#8221; going forward.
In a Tuesday press release, the D.C. mayor announced she had issued an order continuing the work of the Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center and task force, sharing that &#8220;during and after the Presidential emergency, the SBEOC will manage the District’s response, coordinate centralized communications, and ensure coordination with federal law enforcement to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District.&#8221;
&#8220;The mayor’s fellow Democrats should take note, working with President Trump means safer communities and less crime – no one in their right mind could seriously oppose that,&#8221; White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed on Tuesday.
Trump&#8217;s efforts to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C., have been hugely successful: every night, the federal force in Washington has arrested around 70-80 criminals, many of whom are illegal immigrants.
<div id="attachment_967953" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-pushes-democrats-to-follow-dc-mayors-lead-in-bending-knee-to-trump/trump-increases-federal-law-enforcement-presence-deploys-national-guard-in-nations-capital-10" rel="attachment wp-att-967953"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-967953" class="wp-image-967953 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2231913084-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2231913084-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2231913084-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2231913084-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/GettyImages-2231913084.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; AUGUST 24: National Guard Members patrol 14th street, working with Washington DC Metro police on August 24, 2025 in Washington, DC.   (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)</div>
On Monday evening, for example, authorities made 70 arrests, 27 of whom were illegal aliens. That brought the city&#8217;s total arrests to 1,669 since the beginning of operations on Thursday, August 7. One of those arrests was an individual who assaulted a 77-year-old woman and stole her purse, another was for assault with a dangerous weapon, another for assault during a domestic dispute in which the subject choked the victim, and more.
The total D.C. arrests include 16 known gang members, including MS-13 and TDA gang members, rescues of 5 missing children, 168 firearms seized, and 50 homeless encampments cleared by multi-agency teams.
“President Trump’s efforts to crack down on crime in D.C. have yielded tremendous results in such a short time &#8212; violent crime has plummeted and dangerous criminals are being removed from the streets every single night,&#8221; Leavitt said Tuesday.
&#8220;The Trump administration is grateful to continue partnering with Mayor Bowser to make D.C. the safest city in the country,&#8221; she added.
Trump has set his eyes on Baltimore, Maryland, and Chicago, Illinois, for federal enforcement next.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going in,&#8221; he told reporters on Tuesday, asked about deploying federal troops to Chicago and Baltimore. He did not specify when, exactly, the deployments would take place. He also said he would &#8220;love&#8221; if JB Pritzker called and asked for his help with the National Guard.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to do it anyway,&#8221; he said on Tuesday. &#8220;We have the right to do it.”

President Trump Announces 2027 NFL Draft To Be Held On The National Mall

White House Pushes Democrats To Follow DC Mayor’s Lead, Partner With Trump

Law Enforcement

National Guard

Politics

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser admitted on Wednesday that crime in the district has plummeted since President Donald Trump’s federal takeover.
Bowser, a Democrat, touted the cratering crime rates and said she “greatly appreciates” the resources that have been surged into the city since Trump’s early August emergency declaration. She signaled that she would like to continue to work with the federal government to police the city after Trump’s emergency declaration times out at the end of 30 days.
“This is what we think, in just a couple of weeks of experience, has worked: having more federal law enforcement officers on the street. We think having more stops that got to illegal guns has helped. We think that there&#8217;s more accountability in the system, or at least perceived accountability in the system that is driving down illegal behavior,” <a href="https://x.com/Breaking911/status/1960818476375007543">said</a> Bowser at a press conference.
“We know that we have had fewer gun crimes, fewer homicides, and we have experienced an Extreme reduction in carjackings,” she continued.
Bowser went on to tout the area where she suggested Trump’s federal takeover has made the most progress: carjackings.
“The most significant thing that we are highlighting today is the area of crime that was most troubling for us in 2023,” she <a href="https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1960837425858797823">said</a>. Carjackings during the time that Trump has marshaled federal law enforcement to D.C., carjackings in the district have declined 87% from the same period of time last year, according to the mayor
“We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of gun goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer. So this surge has been important to us,” said Bowser.
The mayor criticized the surge for creating “a break in trust” between law enforcement and the local D.C. community. She said that immigration officers in particular have been unnecessary and a waste of resources to police the city.
Since Trump’s federal takeover, more than 1,000 people have been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-less-than-a-month-trumps-federal-d-c-force-makes-more-than-1k-arrests">arrested</a>. Hundreds of those arrested are illegal immigrants, and some have been identified as MS-13 or Tren de Aragua gang members.
Law enforcement has seized over 100 firearms and cleared away dozens of homeless encampments. Trump has surged federal resources into the nation’s capital to make the city safe and beautiful, as well.

Bowser Touts ‘Extreme Reduction’ In Crime Since Trump Took Over D.C. Law Enforcement

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump&#8217;s enforcement operations in Washington, D.C., have resulted in more than 1,000 arrests in less than a month, White House data shared with The Daily Wire show.
The president&#8217;s enforcement operation began on Thursday, August 7, and since then, there have been a total of 1,094 arrests, a White House official shared with The Daily Wire. Two missing children have been rescued, and eight known gang members have been arrested, including MS-13 and Tren De Aragua gang members.
Authorities have also seized 115 firearms, the White House official shared, and cleared 49 homeless encampments through the help of multi-agency teams. The Metropolitan Police Department patrol units are working with city officials to find and clear more of these encampments.
&#8220;This whole of government effort to improve public safety is in compliance with the President’s March Executive Order establishing the Making DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force,&#8221; a White House official explained to The Daily Wire, noting that the details of the government effort are subject to change to meet law enforcement needs as operations continue.
<div id="attachment_965487" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-less-than-a-month-trumps-federal-d-c-force-makes-more-than-1k-arrests/trump-increases-federal-law-enforcement-presence-deploys-national-guard-in-nations-capital-6" rel="attachment wp-att-965487"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-965487" class="wp-image-965487 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232201659-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232201659-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232201659-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232201659-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232201659.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; AUGUST 26: U.S. National Guard members from Ohio stand by the entrance to the Waterfront Metro Station on August 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. In recent days, a majority of the Guardsmen have started carrying weapons on patrol of the nation&#8217;s capital. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)</div>
These arrests are the result of heavy federal presence in Washington, as well as many nightly arrests within the nation&#8217;s capital. The White House has been updating reporters daily on the events of the previous night, typically sharing that around 80 arrests were made during the last evening.
On Monday night, for example, federal authorities made a total of 87 arrests. Of those 87, 39 were illegal aliens, and some had prior arrests for DUI, simple assault, second degree assault, sexual solicitation, felony robbery, contempt of court, and more.
One Mexican illegal alien arrested on Monday night had a prior arrest for child rape and three prior immigration encounters. Another illegal alien arrested on Monday evening was a member of Tren de Aragua.
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Authorities also arrested an adult male &#8220;wanted for questioning&#8221; in an ongoing homicide investigation, as well as for parole violation, an adult male for simple assault (who was later identified as a member of the neo-Nazi, white supremacist group Aryan Nation, and had additional non-extraditable warrants from Texas). Additionally, they arrested individuals for felony possession of a firearm, armed carjacking, carrying a pistol without license, a child abuse warrant, and more.
Monday evening&#8217;s enforcement activities also involved seizing four illegal firearms.
<div id="attachment_965485" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-less-than-a-month-trumps-federal-d-c-force-makes-more-than-1k-arrests/trump-increases-federal-law-enforcement-presence-deploys-national-guard-in-nations-capital-5" rel="attachment wp-att-965485"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-965485" class="wp-image-965485 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232094998-1-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232094998-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232094998-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232094998-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2232094998-1.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; AUGUST 25: National Guard members patrol carrying weapons near the Washington Monument on August 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. An increased presence of law enforcement has been seen throughout the nation&#8217;s capital since U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to deploy federal officers and the U.S. National Guard. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)</div>
The president has suggested that he is eyeing Chicago as the next location for his federal enforcement operations, saying he would like to work with Democratic governors and mayors to deploy the National Guard to major cities to address violent crime.
On Tuesday, Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q04p3OJdhpU&amp;list=RDNSQ04p3OJdhpU&amp;start_radio=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> to Trump&#8217;s suggestions, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/do-not-come-to-chicago-pritzker-fires-back-at-trumps-threat-to-deploy-national-guard">saying that Trump and the National Guard</a> are “neither wanted here nor needed here.”
<div class="ad-wrapper" data-testid="ad-wrapper">“If this was really about fighting crime or making the streets safe, what possible justification could the White House have for planning such an exceptional action without any conversations or consultations with the governor, the mayor, or the police?” Pritzker asked. “Let me answer that question. This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try to intimidate his political rivals.”</div>
<div data-testid="ad-wrapper">
Pritzker called Trump&#8217;s plans &#8220;exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against.”
“Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’” Priztker added. “Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here.’”
</div>

President Trump Visits Law Enforcement And National Guard During D.C. Crime Crackdown

In Less Than A Month, Trump’s Federal D.C. Force Makes More Than 1K Arrests

Executive

President Donald Trump threatened early Friday morning to take “complete and total” control of Washington, D.C., if Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Metropolitan Police Department don’t address “false and highly inaccurate crime figures.”
In a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115070876988527695">post</a> on Truth Social, Trump praised the National Guard and local law enforcement for their significant presence on the capital’s streets as the administration seeks to address violent crime in D.C. Trump also said that D.C. has gone more than a week without a murder, a statistic that the Metropolitan Police Department <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/dc-murder-free-week-ag-153622367.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGPc7XoBfmhR2gfo8lvAgSCmAhMhDj1FoOaUvH2_YX4A5DWeMVx_KSYEn8heUxj4v8NSWShZWvbfqeQlL0Jye-byqH2tfu5WfUnn2DS5B7WjjGXY4A1NF4aBsMMv-B8nDTzJGYNm1nd8j63nNf2YSJ-ZFu8cvoyj91v4iys3EC80">confirmed</a> to Fox News on Thursday.
“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!!!” the president wrote.
Trump then called out Mayor Bowser, arguing that more work needs to be done to fix the city’s reporting of crime statistics.
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“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!” he said. “Washington D.C. will soon be great again!!!”
The D.C. Police Union, which represents 3,000 officers with the Metropolitan Police Department, has said that there are issues with the accuracy of the crime data reported by the police department. Mayor Bowser has highlighted the police department’s statistics, which have shown a significant decrease in violent crime in the past two years, to push back against Trump’s National Guard deployment and attempted federal takeover of the D.C. police.
“I think that there’s a possibility that crime has come down,” said D.C. Police Union President Gregg Pemberton, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/justice-department-investigating-whether-dc-police-manipulated-crime-d-rcna225886">NBC News</a>. Pemberton added, however, that it’s “preposterous” to believe that crime is down as much as police and city officials are claiming.
“What we know, what our members know, is that we go call to call to call out on the streets at night, going from robbery to carjacking to stabbing to shooting, and we just know that crime is ubiquitous, and it’s all in every quadrant of the city,” he said. “So to have people tell us, ‘well, crime is down, you shouldn’t be worried about that,’ that’s not the reality that we feel on the streets.”
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into whether D.C. police officials have cooked the books on crime stats, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/19/trump-police-dc-takeover-justice-department/">reported</a>. In May, a D.C. police commander was placed on leave over accusations that he altered crime data. The commander, Michael Pulliam, denied the allegations. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is leading the DOJ investigation and will likely look into the actions of multiple police officials.
When Trump first announced his operation to “make D.C. safe again” last week, the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi took complete control of the Metropolitan Police Department and named Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole as the emergency police commissioner.
A federal judge, however, blocked the DOJ from taking complete control of the police department. The DOJ worked out a deal last Friday to leave local officials in charge of the department while Cole was put in charge of directing Mayor Bowser to provide police services as the attorney general “deems necessary and appropriate,” according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/15/doj-dc-police-department-control-hearing-00512503">POLITICO</a>.
Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/president-on-patrol-trump-feeds-agents-troops-making-d-c-great-again?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=President+On+Patrol%3A+Trump+Feeds+Agents%2C+Troops+Making+%E2%80%98D.C.+Great+Again%E2%80%99">joined</a> National Guard troops and federal agents on patrol Thursday evening, bringing them food and praising them for their work.
“You people are winners, and it’s such an honor to be with you,” Trump told the troops and law enforcement officers. “We’re going to make Washington, D.C., great again. We’re making the country great again.”

Trump Threatens D.C. Mayor: Fix Crime Stats Or Face ‘Total Federal Takeover’

Police

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser reportedly left the city for Martha’s Vineyard as President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital continues.
Bowser said in a social media post that she has gone to attend to a family obligation, to pick up her daughter, and will return to the district on Friday. Bowser did not confirm her whereabouts.
“I&#8217;m both a mom and mayor, raising a delightful 7 year old on my own. This week, I cancelled a scheduled family trip to lead our city&#8217;s crisis management efforts. I also made the more difficult decision to not disrupt my daughter&#8217;s camp plans,” said Bowser in a <a href="https://x.com/MayorBowser/status/1956116704351936598">post</a> on X.
“I needed to get to her on Wednesday after work and bring her home, which I will do tomorrow. I am in constant contact with my senior team and have been in constant consultation with our partners throughout a short swing out of the District,” she said.
The mayor has left her city for Martha’s Vineyard, a posh enclave in Massachusetts, according to <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dcs-mayor-on-marthas-vineyard-trip-after-trumps-police-takeover/3975311/">NBC Washington</a>. Trump boosted a report of the mayor’s absence from Washington in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115028916499622190">post</a> on Truth Social.
Trump has used emergency authority granted to the president under the 1973 Home Rule Act to take control of Washington’s police force while surging federal resources into the district as well, including National Guard troops. The president has promised to “liberate” D.C. from a plague of crime and homelessness.
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“Because the Democrat Government of D.C. has largely stopped investigating, arresting, and prosecuting most Crime, the published statistics don’t even capture a fraction of the actual Violence. No one is arrested for shoplifting. Citizens living in fear have largely given up on calling the Police, instead choosing not to walk the streets after dark, essentially becoming captive prisoners in their own City,” Trump said in a Truth <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115024069066734919">post</a> on Wednesday.
“The REAL Crime Rates are probably five to ten times what has been reported. D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs. The White House is in charge. The Military and our Great Police will liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!” he continued.
Under Trump’s direction, the D.C. police have begun <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-effect-d-c-police-break-from-sanctuary-city-policies-will-cooperate-with-ice">working</a> closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to crack down on illegal aliens in the district.
Federal law enforcement have already made dozens of arrests in the district since Trump announced his crackdown on crime on Monday. Tuesday alone saw 43 people <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-will-be-safe-again-feds-kick-off-trumps-violent-crime-crackdown-with-over-100-arrests">detained</a> by federal agents.

Mayor Bowser Jets To Martha’s Vineyard While Trump Solves Her City’s Crime Problem

General

The reason Washington, D.C. is in the news this week isn&#8217;t because of anything Donald Trump did. It&#8217;s because D.C., more than any other city in the country, is a monument to the sustained, managed decline of the United States. As our capital, the District is an unmistakable symbol of a pervasive mediocrity, at every level. Every aspect of the city, from top to bottom, operates in exactly the same way.
Take the police department, for example. By now you may have seen the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPM8QoXclUQ">viral clip</a> of the Police Chief, a woman named Pamela Smith, at a press conference with the mayor the other day. In this footage, she appears perplexed by the term &#8220;chain of command,&#8221; as if she&#8217;s never heard those words before in her entire life. A lot of people mocked that clip, and rightfully so. A police chief who doesn&#8217;t understand the concept of &#8220;chain of command&#8221; is a bit like a cook who&#8217;s never heard of the word &#8220;kitchen.&#8221; It&#8217;s the kind of jaw-dropping moment that doesn&#8217;t seem like it could possibly be real.
As bad as that clip was, the entire answer that Smith gave is even worse. The more context you provide for the clip, the more excruciating it becomes. It is important play the full context. Watch as a reporter tries, for more than a minute, to ask Smith about the extent of the federal government&#8217;s control of the D.C. police department. For all practical purposes, as we know, the White House has assumed command of the D.C. police for the next 30 days, pursuant to their legal authority over the District. But Smith seems to struggle with this concept. She implies, repeatedly, that the D.C. police are going to be working alongside the federal government as partners, without giving any indication of who&#8217;s actually in charge. And then, when the reporter finally asks the question as directly as he can, the police chief gives her now-infamous answer. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Mayor Bowser, Chief Smith answer questions on federal takeover of DC Police" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UPM8QoXclUQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Credit: WUSA 9/YouTube.com
The way Muriel Bowser swoops in, at precisely that moment, is probably the most revealing part of that clip. She knows how incompetent her police chief is. So she takes over, before things get any worse. Presumably, Bowser didn&#8217;t want the police chief to expound on all of the other words and phrases she doesn&#8217;t understand. After all, when your crime lab isn&#8217;t even accredited and your murder rate is higher than Baghdad&#8217;s, there&#8217;s only so many more hits to morale the city can take.
After this footage aired, a lot of people pointed out that Smith was not hired based on merit. Instead, a couple of years ago, she was hired as the chief &#8220;equity officer&#8221; in the D.C. police department. She was a &#8220;DEI hire&#8221; in every sense. And then, very quickly, she rose to become chief of police. It would be like elevating a DEI consultant to be the CEO of, say Microsoft. It&#8217;s a decision that makes no sense whatsoever.
At the time, when Smith got the job, local media in D.C. wasn&#8217;t interested in asking her about anything substantive. Instead, of course, they highlighted her skin color and gender, as well as her life story. Watch:
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Washington D.C. is a District that, if it became a state, would have the highest murder rate in the entire country. It&#8217;s so dangerous that members of Congress are being carjacked and beaten in their apartments. The security detail for a Supreme Court justice was nearly carjacked, before they shot the attackers. The only relevant question, when you&#8217;re picking a police chief for a place like this, is what exactly the police chief is going to do about the carnage that&#8217;s unfolding every day. Instead, we&#8217;re told she&#8217;s a nice lady. She&#8217;s black. And she had a tough upbringing. Those were her qualifications.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1640-the-matt-walsh-show?elementPosition=1&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
It&#8217;s not an exaggeration to say that the local media did precisely zero vetting of this woman, nor did anyone in the D.C. government. At most, she was asked superficial questions, with no follow-ups. In a separate interview, for example, the local ABC affiliate asked Smith what she was going to do about all of the murdering that was going on in Washington D.C.
Here&#8217;s how she responded:
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They&#8217;re going to &#8220;come up with a plan,&#8221; according to Smith. The plan will address the murders. And it will address the lack of police officers, too. But you don&#8217;t get to know what the &#8220;plan&#8221; is. That would just be ridiculous. Any questions?
That was good enough for the local ABC affiliate. They asked no follow-ups. But in retrospect, it seems like we all know what the &#8220;plan&#8221; was. As we <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-moves-to-end-d-c-s-third-world-lawlessness-democrats-lose-it?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Matt+Walsh&amp;category=Opinion&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump+Moves+To+End+D.C.%E2%80%99s+Third-World+Lawlessness.+Democrats+Lose+It.">discussed</a> yesterday, it looks a lot like the plan in D.C. was to fabricate crime statistics. Instead of taking a report for a carjacking or a stabbing or a shooting, officers would classify the incident as &#8220;taking an injured person to the hospital&#8221; or a &#8220;theft&#8221; or a &#8220;felony assault.&#8221; Apparently, according to the police union, when an incident is classified as a &#8220;felony assault,&#8221; it doesn&#8217;t get counted in the D.C. police department&#8217;s daily crime stats, or the FBI&#8217;s uniform crime reporting system. This is a loophole that, we can only assume, is being used by many, many other police departments.
Also, in many cases, D.C. police would simply refuse to respond to crimes, including robberies and assaults. That&#8217;s another way to cook the books, as we all know. And for the DEI lady running the police department, apparently, that&#8217;s good enough.
Again, though, this isn&#8217;t about this one person. Pamela Smith is obviously inept. She has no business holding the job that she does, and people are dying as a result. But really, she&#8217;s a part of a larger problem. And pretty much everyone can see that. In the past year, due to various incidents — prison escapes, terrorist attacks, and wildfires — several prominent government officials in major cities all across the country have been thrust into the national spotlight.
<div id="attachment_960545" style="width: 775px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-960545" class="size-large wp-image-960545" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197928039-765x576.jpg" alt="NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - FEBRUARY 05: New Orleans Chief of Police Anne Kirkpatrick arrives at Super Bowl Soulful Celebration at Mahalia Jackson Theater on February 05, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Kaitlyn Morris/Getty Images)" width="765" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197928039-765x576.jpg 765w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197928039-300x226.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197928039-768x578.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2197928039.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 765px) 100vw, 765px" />Kaitlyn Morris/Getty Images</div>
After a jihadi mowed down more than a dozen people in New Orleans, the elderly female police chief informed the world that she had no idea — no idea whatsoever — that the city had purchased pedestrian barriers that could have prevented the attack. Whoops. That would&#8217;ve been nice to know, she said.
<div id="attachment_953505" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-953505" class="size-large wp-image-953505" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Teresa-Theetge-1024x576.jpg" alt="Screenshot / YouTube: WBNS 10TV" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Teresa-Theetge-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Teresa-Theetge-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Teresa-Theetge-768x433.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Teresa-Theetge-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Teresa-Theetge.jpg 2006w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Screenshot / YouTube: WBNS 10TV</div>
Then, after the mob of &#8220;festival-goers&#8221; in Cincinnati brutally attacked white people at a music festival, which has long been a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y83e5lVccHI">state-sanctioned hotbed</a> of anti-white racism, the female police chief scolded the people who recorded the violence. 
<div id="attachment_856861" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856861" class="size-large wp-image-856861" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1237831459-864x576.jpg" alt="Deputy Fire Chief Kristin Crowley has been selected by Mayor Eric Garcetti to lead the Los Angeles Fire Department. Announcement was made at a press conference held at Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1237831459-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1237831459-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1237831459-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1237831459.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Irfan Khan via Getty Images</div>
Earlier in the year, in Los Angeles, as wildfires destroyed entire neighborhoods while firefighters ran out of water, it emerged that the fire chief was a strong independent lesbian who was committed to advancing the LGBTQIIA+ agenda. 
<div id="attachment_960549" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-960549" class="wp-image-960549 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-13-Aug-2025-04-03-PM-5533-576x576.jpg" alt="@EndWokeness/X. LAFD Deputy Chief Kristine Larson." width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-13-Aug-2025-04-03-PM-5533-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-13-Aug-2025-04-03-PM-5533-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-13-Aug-2025-04-03-PM-5533-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-13-Aug-2025-04-03-PM-5533-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-13-Aug-2025-04-03-PM-5533-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-13-Aug-2025-04-03-PM-5533-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />@EndWokeness/X. LAFD Deputy Chief Kristine Larson.</div>
Meanwhile the deputy fire chief, another fiercely independent girlboss, shot a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/12/us-news/lafds-diversity-chief-sparks-fury-for-defending-dei-by-blaming-the-victim/">video</a> in which she downplayed the idea that female firefighters might not be able to rescue a man trapped in a fire by saying, and I, “He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.&#8221; In other words, it&#8217;s the victim&#8217;s fault, as he&#8217;s burning alive, that women can&#8217;t meet the physical standards necessary to be firefighters.
Just from a statistical perspective, there&#8217;s an obvious problem here. We all know that, in the private sector, women aren&#8217;t typically leading major companies. That&#8217;s true in spite of the fact that every Fortune 500 corporation goes out of its way to advance women as part of their DEI agenda. That&#8217;s because women often choose to raise families instead of climbing the corporate ladder. In many cases, they find that they&#8217;re either unwilling or unable to work 80 hours a week, wasting away their entire life in an office building in exchange for a promotion. Also, men and women are different, and men are often just more suited for those kinds of jobs. Women certainly don&#8217;t choose to become police officers or firefighters in large numbers, for obvious reasons. And yet, whenever there&#8217;s a big news story in the past year, we discover that women are somehow running the local police or fire department.
The only way to explain what&#8217;s going on is that these departments are hiring women who are unqualified for the job, solely because they&#8217;re women. That&#8217;s not a partisan point. It&#8217;s basic math. That&#8217;s why these women immediately face-plant on the national stage, the moment they have to respond to any kind of crisis. See, the thing about incompetence is that, very often, it&#8217;s not particularly well-hidden. We&#8217;re not talking about criminal masterminds here. These people only get away with it because, in pretty much every case, no one checks on what they&#8217;re doing. But increasingly, it&#8217;s becoming impossible to ignore what&#8217;s happening. The degree of incompetence is simply too great.
By taking control of Washington D.C. — if only for 30 days or so — the Trump administration has the opportunity to highlight this incompetence even further. The administration can provide a clear contrast between Pamela Smith and Muriel Bowser on the one hand, and competent leadership on the other. They can make sure that every relevant piece of evidence is shipped to a functioning crime lab. They can unseal the D.C. police department&#8217;s fraudulent investigation into January 6, including the shooting of Ashli Babbitt. They can use basic terms like &#8220;chain of command&#8221; without freezing like a deer in the headlights. And in the end, they can expose the extent to which American decline is a choice. We can shut it down, just as quickly as the crime lab was shut down. And before any more people are forced to suffer in the nation&#8217;s capital, or any other major city, that&#8217;s exactly what needs to happen.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Holds A News Conference After President Trump Announced Federal Takeover Of D.C. Police

The Insanely Incompetent DEI Hire Running One Of America’s Most Dangerous Cities

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Opinion

Violent Crime

Inflation remains low despite media warnings about tariffs, as the U.S. extends its trade truce with China. The fallout from President Trump&#8217;s federal takeover of the D.C. police intensifies, with the city&#8217;s mayor and the media clashing over the reality of the crime crisis. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu lays out his post-war plan for Gaza and pushes back on a &#8220;global campaign of lies&#8221; as international pressure mounts.
It’s Wednesday, August 13, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Trump’s Economic Upset &amp; D.C. Takeover Tensions" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xAo5vpE1ZWY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trumps-economic-upset-d-c-takeover-tensions-8-13-25/id1576594336?i=1000721780562" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>Trump Economy Holds Strong as Inflation Defies Predictions</h2>
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Topline: New data show U.S. inflation held steady at a lower-than-expected rate in July, defying dire predictions that President Trump’s tariffs would cause prices to skyrocket. 
Despite warnings from many experts and media outlets, inflation held steady at 2.7% in July, below the 2.8% predicted by economists. The new numbers show that prices for key goods are falling, with gasoline down 10% and eggs down 20%, while real wages are up 1.3% compared to last year. While outlets like The New York Times have tried to frame the numbers negatively, even CNN was forced to acknowledge falling energy and grocery prices. 
The good news comes as the U.S. and China agreed to extend their &#8220;trade truce&#8221; for another 90 days, holding tariffs at a reduced rate while negotiations continue. The administration’s massive trade deals with the European Union, U.K., South Korea, and Japan are already paying dividends. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the new tariffs have already brought in over $100 billion and are projected to reach $300 billion by the end of the year. 
<h2>Fallout Intensifies Over Trump’s D.C. Takeover</h2>
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Topline: The fallout from President Trump’s decision to federalize the Washington, D.C., police force has intensified, sparking a furious debate between city leaders and the media over the reality of the capital&#8217;s crime crisis. 
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has admitted she has no legal recourse to stop the federal intervention, but claims the crime wave is a fiction, stating that the city is at a &#8220;30-year violent crime low.&#8221; She is using the federal takeover to renew her calls for D.C. statehood. That narrative has been echoed by some in the media, with a New York Times reporter referring to a &#8220;nonexistent crime crisis.&#8221; 
However, journalists on the ground in D.C. tell a different story. An ABC News anchor detailed multiple recent shootings near her downtown office, while a CNN contributor said he witnessed a murder in Union Station just a few months ago. 
The D.C. police union is backing the president&#8217;s move, saying crime is &#8220;out of control.&#8221; The union&#8217;s president blamed a 2020 law that &#8220;handcuffed police officers&#8221; for creating a shortage of over 800 officers and making it impossible to properly police the city. 
<h2>Netanyahu Outlines Gaza Plan, Pushes Back on ‘Lies’</h2>
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Topline: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has laid out a five-point vision for a post-war Gaza and is pushing back against what he calls a &#8220;global campaign of lies&#8221; regarding the humanitarian situation in the territory. 
During a press conference, Netanyahu said Israel&#8217;s goal is to &#8220;free Gaza from Hamas terrorists,&#8221; not to occupy it. His five-point plan includes the defeat of Hamas and the release of all hostages, the demilitarization of Gaza, an established security zone on the border, and a new civilian administration that can live in peace with Israel. 
Netanyahu also pushed back on claims that Israel is causing a humanitarian crisis, stating that his country has allowed nearly two million tons of aid into Gaza. &#8220;Our policy throughout the war has been to prevent a humanitarian crisis, while Hamas’ policy has been to create it,&#8221; he said, noting that Hamas loots nearly 90% of aid trucks. A recent Daily Wire exclusive report from Kassy Akiva supported this, debunking a viral story about a Gazan boy who was allegedly killed by Israeli forces at an aid site. 
The comments come as international pressure on Israel mounts. Several European nations, including France, the U.K., and Canada, have recently moved to recognize a Palestinian state. Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the move, saying that by rewarding the Palestinians while Hamas still holds hostages, these countries have &#8220;emboldened&#8221; the terror group and made a ceasefire harder to achieve.

MRN 8.13.25 Wed SH1

Morning Brief: Low Inflation, Tariff Truce w/China, D.C. Takeover Fallout, Plans For Post-War Gaza

Economy

Gaza

Hamas

Inflation

Israel

World

Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser responded after President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/were-gonna-take-our-capital-back-heres-everything-trump-is-going-to-do-to-clean-up-d-c?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=%E2%80%98We%E2%80%99re+Gonna+Take+Our+Capital+Back%E2%80%99%3A+Here%E2%80%99s+Everything+Trump+Is+Going+To+Do+To+Clean+Up+D.C.">announced</a> on Monday that he was deploying the National Guard to clean up the capital. The mayor objected to the move and argued that Trump&#8217;s view of crime in D.C. is based on statistics from 2020.
Bowser held a press conference Monday afternoon to discuss how the city would respond to Trump&#8217;s order to federalize D.C. She acknowledged that violent crime spiked during the COVID pandemic and immediately after, but then claimed that new laws squashed the rising crime and &#8220;reversed&#8221; the violent crime outbreak. Bowser then said that Trump&#8217;s announcement was &#8220;unsettling and unprecedented.&#8221;
&#8220;I believe that the president&#8217;s view of D.C. is shaped by his COVID-era experience during his first term,&#8221; Bowser said. &#8220;And it is true that those were challenging times related to some issues. It is also true that we experienced a crime spike post-COVID, but we worked quickly to put laws in place and tactics that got violent offenders off our streets and gave our police officers more tools.&#8221;
&#8220;Which is why we have seen a huge decrease in crime because of those efforts. We have been able to reverse that 2023 crime spike,&#8221; Bowser said, adding that current crime statistics published by the Metropolitan Police Department show the nation&#8217;s capital is at a 30-year low in violent crime.
&#8220;We&#8217;re not satisfied. We haven&#8217;t taken our foot off the gas, and we continue to look for ways to make our city safer,&#8221; Bowser continued.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/MayorBowser?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MayorBowser</a> on President Trump federalizing DC police: &#8220;While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can&#8217;t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past that we&#8217;re totally surprised.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/r9TU87KUp7">pic.twitter.com/r9TU87KUp7</a>
— CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1954986466867646826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
The White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/fact-yes-d-c-crime-is-out-of-control/">said</a> on Monday that in 2024, D.C. saw &#8220;the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country — nearly six times higher than New York City and also higher than Atlanta, Chicago, and Compton.&#8221;
After saying that Trump had the authority to declare an emergency and federalize law enforcement in D.C., Bowser pushed for statehood for the district.
&#8220;We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me and many, many Washingtonians before me advocate for the full statehood of the District of Columbia,&#8221; Bowser said. &#8220;We are American citizens. Our families go to war. We pay taxes, and we uphold the responsibilities of citizenship. While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can&#8217;t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past that we&#8217;re totally surprised.&#8221;
The White House wrote bluntly on Monday, &#8220;If Washington, D.C., was a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the nation.&#8221;
The Trump administration has also pointed to a Washington, D.C., police commander being placed under investigation for allegedly changing crime statistics. That investigation was announced shortly after the commander filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief, and after the police union accused the Metropolitan Police Department of falsifying crime stats to make it appear as if the city had seen a drop in violent crime, NBC 4 Washington <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-police-commander-suspended-crime-statistics/3959566/">reported</a>.
Mayor Bowser admitted that Trump has the power to take control of law enforcement in D.C., promising that local authorities will coordinate with the federal government. Trump announced on Monday that he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and declaring a public emergency. The move allows him to place the D.C. Police Department under the control of the Justice Department, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/were-gonna-take-our-capital-back-heres-everything-trump-is-going-to-do-to-clean-up-d-c?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=%E2%80%98We%E2%80%99re+Gonna+Take+Our+Capital+Back%E2%80%99%3A+Here%E2%80%99s+Everything+Trump+Is+Going+To+Do+To+Clean+Up+D.C.">reported</a>.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser

‘Unsettling And Unprecedented’: D.C. Mayor Slams Trump’s Takeover, Says Crime Is Dropping

Just a few days after BLM and Antifa set fire to a church outside the White House in the summer of 2020, the mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, issued an emergency order. This wasn&#8217;t an order about restoring law and order to the streets of the nation&#8217;s capital, or punishing the vandals who had just destroyed property and assaulted Secret Service agents, or anything like that. Instead, Bowser made the decision to hire an elite team of eight artists — yes, eight artists — to meet up at around 3:30 a.m. in the morning. These artists&#8217; mission, if they chose to accept it, was to paint the words &#8220;BLACK LIVES MATTER&#8221; on two blocks of road, in giant fifty-foot-tall letters, just a few blocks from the White House. This street painting would be referred to as a &#8220;mural,&#8221; to give it some sense of grandeur, even though it&#8217;s really graffiti. Nobody knows why it required eight artists to paint three words in Times New Roman font. Maybe they needed one to do the painting and the other seven for spell check. It’s not clear.
But it was clearly a very deliberate decision to have this graffiti painted in secrecy, under the cover of darkness, like they were planning the Bin Laden raid. Apparently the reasoning was that white supremacists would be less likely to jump out of the bushes on 16th street and mess up the paint at 3:00 a.m., because as we all know, at that hour the white supremacists are too busy hunting for the cast of &#8220;Empire&#8221; in Chicago. So the BLM graffiti could be painted in peace. And then, by morning, everyone would awaken to see &#8220;BLACK LIVES MATTER&#8221; on the ground, and racism would be defeated. All of the klan members in Washington D.C. would see the words on the street and say to each other, “Geez, you know what, black lives really do matter.” And then they would throw off their pointy hat hats and go get jobs at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Of course, the actual plan was a lot more modest than that. The real goal was simply to annoy Donald Trump and impress &#8220;The Resistance,&#8221; which applauded any effort — no matter how petty — to advance the BLM scam. To that end, Muriel Bowser renamed the area with the alleged &#8220;mural&#8221; as &#8220;Black Lives Matter Plaza.&#8221; And then she <a href="https://x.com/MurielBowser/status/1269090846160412672" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted this message</a> on social media: &#8220;We turned on the night light for him so he dreams about #BlackLivesMatter Plaza.&#8221; Yes, according to Muriel Bowser, the plan was to have Donald Trump &#8220;dream about&#8221; some words they painted on the ground. And people loved it. This is the kind of tweet that, on Old Twitter, got tens of thousands of &#8220;likes&#8221; and non-stop praise in the replies. Anyone who disagreed was banned for hate speech.
Given that recent history, it&#8217;s actually kind of astonishing to see how Muriel Bowser and Democrat activists have reacted to Republicans&#8217; latest effort to get rid of BLM Plaza and the street graffiti. Congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia recently introduced legislation that would strip D.C. of most of its federal funding unless they eliminate BLM plaza, rename it &#8220;Liberty Plaza,&#8221; and get rid of the graffiti. And instead of fighting back in any way, Democrats are rolling over. Muriel Bowser has already announced that the BLM writing is going to be removed from the street. Apparently the current plan is to replace it with artwork commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which is coming up next summer. And as various local news outlets are reporting, it&#8217;s not just the mayor who&#8217;s fine with this. One of the artists involved in creating the so-called &#8220;mural&#8221; doesn&#8217;t really seem to care either. Watch:
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At this point, you have to go out of your way to find anyone in D.C. who cares about this graffiti being wiped away. The people who created it are now distancing themselves from the whole idea. So are a lot of local activists. We went from Mitt Romney saying &#8220;Black Lives Matter&#8221; as he marches along with Left-wing activists, to watching Left-wing activists pretty much disavow the whole thing. And it only took a few years.
To be fair, I did find at least one woman who seemed upset that this beautiful mural is being erased. Here&#8217;s what she told a local news station. As you&#8217;ll see, this woman is wearing a shirt about D.C. statehood, and she begins by talking about DEI, so it&#8217;s safe to say that the BLM mural isn&#8217;t exactly her primary focus. But she eventually gets around to implying that erasing the big yellow words on the street is a really bad idea. Watch:
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It&#8217;d be interesting to get this woman&#8217;s take on all the statues that Democrats have torn down over the years. That&#8217;s the kind of history she wants to see &#8220;erased.&#8221; But some words painted on a street five years ago — a monument to the total disaster of the BLM movement — is something that we supposedly need to preserve at all costs.
Of course, most people in the Democrat Party don&#8217;t think that way. They&#8217;re trying to distance themselves from this &#8220;mural&#8221; as quickly as they can. BLM — which was once a core, unifying pillar of the Democrat Party — has suddenly become a major political liability for Democrats. They can&#8217;t run away from it fast enough. This is progress, of course, in one sense. It&#8217;s a sign that Democrats are abandoning a movement that caused more than a billion dollars in property damage, resulted in multiple murders, suspended the right of self-defense in parts of the country, and kickstarted a nationwide de-policing effort that made this country far more dangerous.
At the same time, Democrats are not abandoning BLM because they&#8217;ve adopted a new, coherent ideology to replace it. They&#8217;re not committing themselves to a more responsible platform or anything like that. Instead, they’re flailing around in a state of total disarray, without any guiding principles whatsoever. They have no leadership and no direction of any kind. We are witnessing anarchy in the Democrat Party, after years of lockstep, disciplined messaging. And it&#8217;s not just the downfall of BLM Plaza that illustrates the chaos that&#8217;s unfolding.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1550-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Last night the Left-wing outlet Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/03/06/democrats-disrupt-trump-speech-reaction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that, in the wake of Donald Trump&#8217;s address to Congress, Democrats in Washington are now fighting among themselves about how terribly they came across. Apparently Democrats&#8217; leadership in Congress didn&#8217;t want any kind of props to be used, nor did they call for any kind of interruptions or heckling. And of course, all throughout Trump&#8217;s speech, Democrats were waving their little paddles around, making noise, turning their backs to Trump, rushing out of the chamber, and so on. So there was a complete breakdown of leadership, by all accounts. Axios quotes several Democrat congressmen, including Jared Golden and Tom Suozzi, as saying the outbursts were a major mistake. One Democrat put it this way: &#8220;Not standing for Trump would have been a fine strategy, but you need to separate him from the kid with cancer.&#8221;
But that’s the way it played out, because the Democrats are totally beholden to the most radical elements of their party. This is &#8220;ideological capture,&#8221; and the consequences are a lot more far-reaching than Democrats might like to admit. The issue for them is not simply that voters find their party to be completely unappealing, even though that&#8217;s obviously a serious problem. The bigger issue for Democrats is that voters are now going back and re-assessing how Democrats got to this point. Voters are thinking about everything else Democrats have said over the past decade or so. They&#8217;re wondering what other scams the party has been running.
That might explain why, according to a <a href="https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_uHE5Cxl.pdf#page36" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent poll</a> from The Economist and YouGov, only 48% of Americans support the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage. 38% of Americans oppose it, and the rest are unsure. To restate: Less than half of adult Americans want same-sex marriage to be recognized nationwide. Among political &#8220;moderates,&#8221; support for the nationwide legalization of gay marriage sits at just 51%. Among conservatives, it&#8217;s down to 20%. This is from a poll that was conducted just a few days ago, in the first days of March. Even among self-described liberals, support for gay marriage isn&#8217;t unanimous. It sits at around 84% in that demographic.
Just three years ago, YouGov <a href="https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/43775-51-34-americans-would-back-congress-passing-law-le" target="_blank" rel="noopener">measured</a> much stronger support for gay marriage, when people were asked the same question. A majority of Americans backed it. In other words, things are now so bad that Democrats are even losing ground on an issue that they thought was settled. They viewed gay marriage as a stepping stone to gender ideology, without realizing that the insanity of gender ideology would eventually make people take a closer look at gay marriage. And that was a major tactical error, because when it comes to the culture war, no argument is ever really settled. People on our side have said for years that the marriage debate is over. We lost. There’s nothing we can do. But that’s not true. It’s never over. After all, the “traditional” definition of marriage — which is to say the actual definition — was settled for thousands of years. Until it wasn’t.
The reality is that, just as quickly as America was overtaken by the moral panic of BLM and the emotional blackmail of trans activists, we can return to some semblance of sanity. It doesn&#8217;t take much. What conservatives need to do, as quickly as possible, is to capitalize on Democrats&#8217; weakness and start passing laws that reverse the derangement that&#8217;s been so dominant for so long. If conservatives do that, they might be able to drag more concessions out of Democrats than we ever thought possible. After all, no one thought they&#8217;d cave on the BLM movement as quickly as they have. But they did. And it stands to reason that they can be beaten on gender insanity and voter ID and open borders and all of their other &#8220;must-have agenda items&#8221; just as thoroughly. All Republicans have to do now is take advantage of their position of power and apply pressure, just like the congressman from Georgia did. In response, Democrats might howl and stomp their feet and wave paddles around. But in the end, they will lose.

House Minority Leader McCarthy Hosts Back The Blue Bike Tour

Sanity Is Making A Comeback

Black Lives Matter

Matt Walsh

President Trump

Same-Sex Marriage

Woke Culture

President Donald Trump gave an ultimatum to Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday to clean up the rampant homeless encampments around Washington, D.C., or face intervention from federal authorities. 
Trump posted on Truth Social that Bowser should take action to clean up camps around the State Department and the White House. If she doesn’t take action, Trump said that he would step in and do it. 
“We have notified the Mayor of Washington, D.C., that she must clean up all of the unsightly homeless encampments in the City, specifically including the ones outside of the State Department, and near the White House,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114112430549537723" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a>. “If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her! Washington, D.C. must become CLEAN and SAFE!” 
“We want to be proud of our Great Capital again,” he added. “Thank you Mayor Bowser for your efforts on behalf of the Citizens of our Country. Hopefully you will be successful!”
The demand comes as the Trump administration has floated taking more aggressive action to cut down on homelessness and crime in the nation’s capital, including taking over governance of the district.  
“I think that we should govern the District of Columbia,” Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/law-and-order-trump-says-feds-should-take-over-washington-d-c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters last month. “I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it absolutely flawless.” 
“And I think we should take over Washington, D.C. We could save people from getting killed,” Trump added. “The federal government should take over the governance of D.C. and run it really, really properly.”
Bowser previously <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2025/02/mayor-bowser-responds-to-report-of-trump-executive-order-targeting-dc-homeless-encampments-local-crime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that homeless encampments are “not technically permitted in the District” and seemed open to working with the White House to be tougher on crime.
The D.C. Democrat has also been facing pressure in recent weeks from congressional Republicans, who have introduced bills targeting lawlessness in the city. 
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) <a href="https://clyde.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3042" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> a bill on Monday that would force D.C. to rename its Black Lives Matter Plaza to Liberty Plaza, saying “we are not a defund the police nation.” 
In response, Bowser suggested that the plaza could be renamed and redesigned ahead of America&#8217;s 250th birthday, but offered few specifics, <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dcs-mayor-defends-her-decision-to-have-black-lives-matter-plaza-painted-over/3859704/">according</a> to local media.
&#8220;The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we can&#8217;t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,&#8221; Bowser <a href="https://x.com/MayorBowser/status/1897039109434364388" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.&#8221;
Last month, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced a bill that would end “home rule” established decades ago for District residents to control their own local affairs, and bring the district under the management of Congress. The lawmakers cited violent crime and the city council’s push to allow non-citizen voting as reasons for the legislation.

Trump calls for federal control over Washington DC as homelessness and crime rise

Trump Gives D.C. Mayor Ultimatum On ‘Unsightly Homeless Encampments’

Homelessness

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