JUST IN: Trump Takes Control Of DC Police Department, Invokes Home Rule Act

President Donald Trump invoked presidential authorities over Washington, D.C. on Monday, federalizing municipal autonomy that he claimed has failed to stanch the squandering of a once-great city now beset by homelessness, petty crime, and pervasive lawlessness.

At a press conference, the president announced the administration is taking “historic action” to “take the capital back,” including introducing National Guardsmen and FBI agents to patrol the city’s streets at night. He cited Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which immediately places the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under federal control.

The goal of coordinating local and state authorities under the White House is to “reestablish law and order,” Trump said.

“You’ll be meeting the people that will be directly involved with that,” he promised.

“Very good people, but they’re tough… and they know what’s happening.”

“This is Liberation Day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said at the White House. “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs, and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen any more.”

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Overnight, FBI agents fanned out across the city, and Fox News reported that Trump may dispatch upwards of 1,000 members of the National Guard in the coming days. Officials say the response is largely visceral from Trump, who has driven through the capital city on a daily basis and seen flagrant vagrancy and littered streets lining his trip to the White House.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on social media in teasing the announcement. “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.”

The D.C. National Guard counts about 2,700 soldiers in its ranks. Unlike other states, President Donald Trump does not need to seek the sign-off of local authority figures before calling them up.

“We want to have a great, safe capital,” Trump said last week. “And we’re going to have it.”

Trump explained he is intent on abolishing the Home Rule Act, passed by Congress in 1973, which establishes the city’s right to elect its own mayor and city council and largely govern all municipal affairs, Fox News reported.

The threat of increased federal action sparked a war of words over the weekend between White House advisor Stephen Miller and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat.

Miller alleged on NewsNation Sunday night that the capital city is “more violent than Baghdad,” prompting Bowser to fire back on MSNBC, “Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.”