U.S. President Donald Trump wants to remove homeless people from the capital, Washington, and imprison offenders. “The homeless must move IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. However, his plans face resistance from the city’s mayor.
“We will provide them with shelter, but FAR from the capital. Criminals don’t have to move away. We will put you in jail where you belong,” Trump explained. To implement these plans, the government is preparing to deploy hundreds of National Guard members, according to a U.S. representative.
However, no final decision has yet been made, the government representative told Reuters news agency. Trump’s Post on His Own Platform — Mayor: No Increase in Crime Washington’s mayor, Democrat Muriel Bowser, rejected the president’s claims.
“We are not seeing an increase in crime in the capital,” Bowser told MSNBC on Sunday. According to city police data, violent crime dropped by 26 percent in the first seven months of 2025 compared to the previous year, while overall crime fell by seven percent. Bowser acknowledged that there had been a sharp rise in crime in 2023.
“But we are no longer in 2023.” Attack on Government Employee Sparks Debate The apparent trigger for the plans was a violent attack on a young government employee that had angered the president.
A White House official said that 450 federal officers were already deployed in the city. Unlike U.S. states, where the governor decides on the deployment of the National Guard, the troops in the capital, Washington, report directly to the president. Trump had already deployed the National Guard to the city after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The White House did not comment on the legal basis on which Trump intends to expel people from Washington.
