President Donald Trump has ordered federal law enforcement to increase patrols in Washington, D.C., in response to a youth crime wave.
"This has to be the best-run place in the country, not the worst-run place in the country. And it has so much potential," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday.
While crime in the city has declined from a high in 2023, the amount of violence plaguing the city, particularly among ruthless juveniles, is still unacceptably high.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said federal patrols in the city will last for at least one week starting Friday.
“Washington, DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long," Leavitt said. “President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens."
According to police data, minors accounted for half of all carjacking arrests in the city over the last two years. The city's left-wing leaders have been slow to act.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, a Democrat, has dismissed youth crime by saying "kids are kids." The dangers of that lenient view were laid bare when a former DOGE staffer was beaten to a bloody pulp by a pack of ruthless teens in an attempted carjacking last weekend.
The savage assault sparked Trump's attention and brought D.C.'s crime policies under fresh scrutiny.
"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 said in a post.
Trump has called for D.C. to change its laws so minors can be prosecuted as adults. The newly confirmed U.S. Attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, is a Trump ally who agrees that lawless juveniles have been "coddled" for too long.
The mother of 21-year-old Republican intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, who was murdered in northwest D.C. last month, says she supports Trump's push to take over the city.
"My son didn't deserve what happened to him. Nobody deserves that. He was shot. He wasn't the intended target," Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym said.
Washington, D.C., has limited autonomy under the Home Rule Act, which allows the president to federalize the Metropolitan Police if "special conditions of an emergency nature exist."
