President Donald Trump on Tuesday floated the idea of a federal takeover of New York City and Washington, D.C., during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
Asked about New York’s mayoral election, Trump criticized Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani and listed other contenders, but stopped short of endorsing anyone. “We’re not going to have — if a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same,” he said. “But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to.”
Turning to the capital, Trump added, “We could run D.C. We’re looking at D.C. We don’t want crime in D.C. We want the city to run well.”
“We would run it so good, it would be run so proper,” Trump continued. “We’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you.”
While the 1973 Home Rule Act grants D.C. local autonomy, Congress retains final oversight on laws and budgets.