A homeless man settles in for the evening at a subway stop near the White House in Washington
President Donald Trump on Aug. 10 suggested removing homeless people from Washington to make the nation’s capital “safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”
In a Sunday post on Truth Social, Trump shared several photos showing tents and garbage on the streets in areas around the capital, saying that “the Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.”
“The Criminals, you don’t have to move out,” Trump added. “We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border.”
The president warned to “be prepared,” adding, “There will be no ‘MR. NICE GUY.’”
As of publication, the White House has not responded to a request for clarification on what legal mechanism Trump would use to evict homeless people from Washington, and where they would be sent afterward.
On any given night, there are 3,782 single persons experiencing homelessness in the nation’s capital, a city of roughly 700,000 people, according to the Community Partnership, an organization working to combat homelessness there. The organization says that while most of the homeless people are in transitional housing or emergency shelters, roughly 800 are without shelter.
Trump will host a press conference on homelessness, violent crime, and other issues from the White House on Monday at 10 a.m. ET but has not said if further details of his plan will be announced there.
Trump announced in a follow-up post on Truth Social that the suggestion is part of a larger push for beautification of the capital city, also targeting crime in Washington.
“The Press Conference on Crime and ‘Beautification’ will be held tomorrow … and it will not only involve ending the Crime, Murder, and Death in our Nation’s Capital, but will also be about Cleanliness and the General Physical Renovation and Condition of our once beautiful and well maintained Capital,” he said.
Trump added that Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser “is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive.”
“Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, [Washington] was the most beautiful Capital in the World,” Trump wrote. “It will soon be that again.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized the crime level in Washington, recently pointing to the violent attack on a young former staffer of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last week during a carjacking attempt. He threatened to federalize the city if it didn’t “get its act together.”
“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”
On Sunday, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, said the capital was “not experiencing a crime spike.”
“It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023,” Bowser said on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.” “We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.”
Violent crime in the first seven months of 2025 dropped by 26 percent compared to 2024, and overall crime in Washington was down by roughly 7 percent, according to the city’s police department reports.
After meeting with the president several weeks ago in the Oval Office, Bowser said Trump is “very aware” of the city’s efforts with federal law enforcement.
Since establishing the district in 1790 with land from both Virginia and Maryland, Congress has controlled Washington’s budget, but residents vote to elect a city council and mayor.
Congress would likely need to pass a bill rescinding the law that created Washington’s local elected leadership for Trump to federalize the city. The president would then have to sign the bill into law.
However, Bowser noted on Sunday that Trump could call in the National Guard if he desired, similar to its recent deployment in Los Angeles following protests against federal immigration enforcement operations that turned into violent riots.
Reuters contributed to this report.
