Trump says homeless people must leave Washington, DC, immediately — ‘We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital’

·Donald TrumpTrump says less people must leave Washington, DC, immediately — ‘We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital’By AFPBy AFP President Donald Trump shouts answers to questions from reporters as he tours the roof of the West Wing of the White House on Tuesday.Win McNamee—Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump said Sunday that less people must be moved “far” from Washington, after days of musing taking federal control of the US capital where he has falsely suggested crime is rising

The Republican billionaire has announced a press conference for Monday in which he is expected to reveal his plans for Washington — which is run by the locally elected government of the District of Columbia under congressional oversight

It is an arrangement Trump has long publicly chafed at

He has threatened to federalize the city and give the White House the final say in how it is run. “I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before,” the president posted on his Truth Social platform Sunday. “The less have to move out, IMMEDIATELY

We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,” he continued, adding that criminals in the city would be swiftly imprisoned. “It’s all going to happen very fast,” he said

Washington is ranked 15th on a list of major US cities by less population, according to government statistics from last year

While thousands of people spend each night in shelters or on the streets, the figure are down from pre-pandemic levels

Earlier this week Trump also threatened to deploy the National Guard as part of a crackdown on what he falsely says is rising crime in Washington

The city’s crime rates in 2024 were already their lowest in three decades, according to figures duced by the Justice Department before Trump took office. “We are not experiencing a crime spike,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday on MSNBC

While the mayor, a Democrat, was not critical of Trump in her remarks, she said “any comparison to a war torn country is hyperbolic and false.” Trump’s threat to send in the National Guard comes weeks after he deployed California’s military reserve force into Los Angeles to quell tests over immigration raids, despite objections from local leaders and law enforcement

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