President Donald Trump suggested that the federal government “should take over Washington, D.C.” and govern it, citing how there was “too much crime, too much graffiti” and too many homeless encampments, according to several reports.

Jake Sherman, the founder of Punchbowl News shared words that Trump had told reporters while on Air Force One, citing Tarini Parti, a White House reporter with the Wall Street Journal as a source.

“I think that we should govern the District of Columbia … I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it absolutely flawless,” Trump was reported as having said, according to the press pool. “And I think we should take over Washington, D.C. We could save people from getting killed. They have a great police department there. Somehow they’re not utilized properly. We should govern D.C. The federal government should take over the governance of D.C. And run it really, really properly.”

Trump also shared that while he liked Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), gets “along great with the mayor,” the government of D.C. was “not doing the job,” according to the press pool.

“I like the mayor, I get along great with the mayor, they’re not doing the job — too much crime, too much graffiti, too many tents on the lawns, there’s magnificent lawns and there’s tents. It’s a sad thing, homeless people all over the place, we’ve gotta take care of the homeless,” Trump added, according to the press pool. “But we can’t have that in Washington, D.C.”

Shelby Talcott, a White House Correspondent with Semafor also shared in a post on X that Trump told “reporters on Air Force One” that he thought the federal government “should take over Washington, D.C.”

“Trump tells reporters on Air Force One tonight that he thinks the federal government ‘should take over Washington, D.C.’ — doubling down on a proposal we heard occasionally on the campaign trail,” Talcott wrote in her post.

Trump’s words come as he has stated in a previous post on Truth Social from October 2023, that the District of Columbia “has become a dirty, crime ridden death trap, that must be taken over and properly run by the Federal Government.”

“It is, and will be, part of my Election Platform. We will clean it, renovate and rebuild it – and, most importantly, MAKE IT SAFE,” Trump wrote in his post at the time.

In a list of 182 of the “Safest Cities in the U.S.,” Washington, DC, was listed as being 172, according to WalletHub. Other cities such as Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Detroit, Michigan, ranked below the District of Columbia.

While crimes in Washington, DC, in 2024 were down from 2023, crimes such as motor vehicle thefts, assault with a dangerous weapon, and other types of theft remained high, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) website.

Data showed that in 2023, there were 1,412 reports of assault with a dangerous weapon, while in 2024, there were 1,026 reports, representing a 27 percent decrease.

Data also showed that there were 6,809 reports of motor vehicle theft in 2023, while in 2024, there were 5,139 reports, representing a 25 percent decrease.

Breitbart News’s Wendell Husebo previously reported that in 2023, D.C. officials “decreased the police department’s budget” by “1.7 percent from 2022.”