President Donald Trump has urged the country’s federal government to takeover the nation’s capital.
Trump also approved putting the District of Columbia back under direct federal control.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, the U.S president complained about crime and homelessness in the district.
Trump said, “I think we should take over Washington, D.C. — make it safe.”
“I think that we should govern the District of Columbia,” he added.
Under terms of the city’s Home Rule authority, Congress already vets all D.C. laws and can outright overturn them.
But some congressional Republicans have sought to go further, eroding decades of the city’s limited autonomy and putting it back under direct federal control, just as it was at its founding.
