Trump Announces He Is Invoking the D.C. Home Rule Act to Place the D.C. MPD Under Direct Federal Control

Trump: “I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse. This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we’re going to take our capital back. We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States. I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act — you know what that is — and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control, and you’ll be meeting the people that will be directly involved with that. Very good people, but they’re tough and they know what’s happening, and they’ve done it before. In addition, I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.”