US President Donald Trump has pledged to evict homeless people from the nation's capital and jail criminals, despite Washington's mayor arguing there is no current spike in crime.
"The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong," Mr Trump posted on the Truth Social platform.
The White House declined to explain what legal authority Mr Trump would use to evict people from Washington. The Republican president controls only federal land and buildings in the city.
Mr Trump is planning to hold a press conference to "stop violent crime in Washington, DC". It was not clear whether he would announce more details about his eviction plan then.
Mr Trump's Truth Social post included pictures of tents and DC streets with some rubbish on them. "I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before," he said.
According to the Community Partnership, an organisation working to reduce homelessness in DC, on any given night there are 3,782 single persons experiencing homelessness in the city of about 700,000 people.
Most of the homeless individuals are in emergency shelters or transitional housing. About 800 are considered unsheltered or "on the street," the organisation says.
A White House official said on Friday that more federal law enforcement officers were being deployed in the city, following a violent attack on a young Trump administration staffer that angered the president.
Alleged crimes investigated by federal agents on Friday night included "multiple persons carrying a pistol without licence," motorists driving on suspended licences, and dirt bike riding, according to a White House official.
The official said 450 federal law enforcement officers were deployed across the city on Saturday.
The Democratic mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, said that the capital was "not experiencing a crime spike."
"It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023,but this is not 2023," Ms Bowser said on MSNBC’s The Weekend.
"We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low."
The city's police department reports that violent crime in the first seven months of 2025 was down by 26% in DC compared with last year while overall crime was down about 7%.
Ms Bowser said Mr Trump is "very aware" of the city's work with federal law enforcement after meeting with Trump several weeks ago in the Oval Office.
The US Congress has control of DC's budget after the district was established in 1790 with land from neighbouring Virginia and Maryland, but resident voters elect a mayor and city council.
For Mr Trump to take over the city, Congress likely would have to pass a law revoking the law that established local elected leadership, which Mr Trump would have to sign.
Ms Bowser noted the president's ability to call up the National Guard if he wanted, a tactic the administration used recently in Los Angeles after immigration protests over the objections of local officials.
