A viral Truth Social post from President Donald Trump this week threatening a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., has generated predictable outrage on the left and among the Democrat partisans who govern the city. But as the nation’s capital descends further into a lawless hellscape of carjackings, drug use, and rampant homelessness, Trump’s proposal is exactly what the city needs – and what Americans deserve.
The controversy began when Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old software engineer, was surrounded by multiple assailants and brutally beaten in D.C. over the weekend. Coristine was formerly a part of Elon Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency and now works at the Social Security Administration. He was notably known by the humorous moniker “Big Balls.”
At around 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, police say a group of teenagers in the city’s Logan Circle neighborhood approached Coristine and a woman he was with as the pair were nearing their vehicle. Coristine pushed the woman into the car for safety and then turned to confront the group, who began beating him. A photo of a bloodied Coristine has been viewed millions of times on social media. Police say they arrested two 15-year-olds fleeing the scene.
In response to the news, Trump posted that crime in D.C. is “totally out of control.”
“Local ‘youths’ and gang members… are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing they will be almost immediately released,” the President continued. “They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! Washington, D.C., must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see. 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.”
Trump’s statement prompted plenty of impassioned opposition on the left, including one post that compared the threat to Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power in Germany in 1933. There were the usual cries that a federal takeover would be “unconstitutional” and a “threat to democracy.”
However, there is a stronger argument that D.C.’s home rule is itself the constitutional abomination. Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution clearly states: “The Congress shall have Power… to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States.”
In other words, the Founders intended for Congress to govern the capital city. They intentionally carved out a special district that was not part of any state and would exist under federal control. The entire point was to not leave members of Congress and government employees subject to coercion and control from an outside governing body.
It was only the passage of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in 1973 that created a locally elected mayor and city council. Congress still has the power to veto D.C. laws via a simple majority vote in both chambers, but that authority is rarely exercised.
Since that time, the city has been governed exclusively by liberals – and has been worse off for it. In the 52 years of home rule, there have been just two Republicans elected to the D.C. city government – and the second one, David Catania, left the GOP and became an Independent in 2004.
Like every other liberal city, crime has spiraled out of control under Democrat governance, bringing with it poverty and cultural decay. After the establishment of home rule, D.C.’s homicide count rose from 289 in 1973 to 195 by 1979, then climbed again to 237 in 1981. In more recent years, a wave of youth crime, particularly carjackings, has plagued the city. In one particularly gruesome incident in 2021, two teenage girls were charged with murder after a botched carjacking left a 66-year-old man dead.
The capital’s crime epidemic is a direct result of liberal soft-on-crime policies and the city government’s war on the police department. Following the BLM riots in 2020 that saw much of the city vandalized and torched, DCPD staffing reached a half-century low even as homicides spiked. Still, the city council attempted to pass a crime bill that was so radical that even former President Joe Biden signed a resolution overturning it.
In any other city, these disastrous results might be shrugged off as the unfortunate result of voters choosing the same failed policies and politicians over and over again. But D.C. is not any other city, and every American citizen holds a unique stake in what happens there.
As Trump correctly points out, the nation’s capital should be a shining symbol of American greatness. The United States is the richest and most powerful nation in the history of the world. The fact that the streets of D.C. are overrun with gangs of teenagers terrorizing and assaulting government employees because the city’s leaders care more about “restorative justice” than enforcing the law and punishing criminals is a national and international embarrassment.
Moreover, D.C. is entirely propped up by tax dollars flooding in from everywhere else in the country. It has no local economy to speak of beyond government and tourism, to see the monuments and museums that American taxpayers keep open. D.C.’s leaders have an obligation not just to the people who live there, but also to every American who deserves to be able to come to the nation’s capital without having to wade through homeless encampments and worry about their family’s safety.
It is also a threat to the constitutional order to have a national government reside in a city where the local government is openly hostile toward one political party. We saw the alarming results of this in the summer of 2020 when violent rioters effectively besieged the White House and threatened violence against Trump and his staffers. Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser not only egged on the unrest, but she and the city council also prevented the police from intervening to stop the chaos and lawlessness.
During this tense moment, Trump showed extraordinary restraint by not taking control of the city’s police force and National Guard – as he has the full power to do under the Home Rule Act. But the city’s law-abiding residents and 25 million annual visitors deserve better than what they are getting from current leadership.
The best solution, abolishing home rule altogether and permanently ending the fantasy that D.C. can become a state, is unlikely given that it will take 60 votes in the Senate. But the city relies heavily on federal tax dollars, and congressional Republicans can use budget riders and other spending mechanisms to force D.C. city leaders to adjust their laws and better preserve law and order.
D.C. has proven time and again that it cannot govern itself responsibly. If its leaders won’t restore safety and order, then Congress and President Trump must.
Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. Follow him on X @shaneharris513.
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