Roll Call - As President Donald Trump takes over the District of Columbia’s police force and prepares to deploy the National Guard in an effort to stamp out crime, statehood advocates are calling on congressional Democrats to unify around autonomy for the District and push back against the administration.
At a press conference on Monday, Trump declared a public safety emergency and invoked a section of the 1973 Home Rule Act that allows the federal government to take the reins of the local police department for up to 30 days, part of a ramp-up of tough-on-crime rhetoric aimed at D.C.
The push comes as violent crime has fallen in the past two years from a peak in 2023, according to Metropolitan Police Department data, leading some to speculate that Trump’s recent fixation may have more to do with a desire to distract from less favorable stories, like the Epstein files or troubling economic data. Some said it’s an outright power grab.
“People are understanding that this isn’t about crime. It’s absurd. The data doesn’t back it up,” said Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, a local group advocating for statehood. “It is a direct attack on our democracy, and the people who have any power right now need to stop this.”
But according to Chatterjee and others, Democrats should unify around the push for statehood even so, while condemning Republicans who have so far declined to bring legislation to the floor that would restore a roughly $1 billion budget cut Congress imposed on the city earlier this year.
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