Trump puts D.C. police under federal control

Let's take you live to the White House now, where President Trump is about to make remarks on his security crackdown in Washington, DC. Let's listen. And we're here for a very serious purpose, a very serious purpose. Something's out of control, but we're going to put it in control very quickly, like we did on the southern border. I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse. This is liberation day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back. We're taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States, I'm officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. Do you know what that is? And placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control. And you'll be meeting the people that will be directly involved with that. Very good people, but they're tough, and they know what's happening, and they've done it before. In addition, I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, DC, and they're going to be allowed to do their job properly. And you people are victims of it too. You're reporters, and I understand a lot of you tend to be on the liberal side, but you don't want to get-- you don't want to get mugged and raped and shot and killed. And you all know people and friends of yours that that happened. And so you can be anything you want, but you want to have safety in the streets. You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something, and you don't have that now. The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth. Much higher. This is much higher. The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years, and the number of carjackings has more than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever. They say 25 years, but they don't know what that means because it just goes back 25 years. It can't be worse. 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 anymore. We're not going to take it. And just like we did on our southern border, nobody comes to our southern border anymore. Three months in a row, we had 0. I don't know if that's right, but the people that do the work, it's a very liberal group of people, actually, and they actually said 0 for the last three months. Nobody thought a thing like that was possible. And well, when you say, take a look at numbers, I just saw some charts. These are different cities throughout the world. The red is a place called Washington, DC. Look at these. Baghdad. We doubled up on Baghdad. Panama City, Brasilia, San Jose, Costa Rica, Bogota, Colombia, heavy drugs. Mexico City I mentioned. Lima, Peru. All double and triple what they are. So do you want to live in places like that? I don't think so. I don't think so. And I think the people in this room, if you wrote correctly, you'd say, look at the kind of numbers we have. DC, 41 per 100,000, number one that we can find anywhere in the world. Other cities are pretty bad, but they're not as bad as that. That where you want to live? The reporters of the world. Juvenile offenders and crimes against persons as they say, it's getting worse. Not getting better, it's getting worse. And we had a recent indication, and there was a story about a man who just left. He quit because he was asked to do phony numbers on crime. And we're going to look into that. I think Pam is going to be looking into that. But he was asked by the city, I guess, that we don't want to show the real numbers. Let me do numbers, so it looks like it's going down. They're not going down. And under Biden, it was a disaster, and nobody did anything about it. We're going to do things about it like you wouldn't believe. Every American has a constitutional right to be able to access and petition their government in safety and countless federal officials. And employees likewise have the right to carry out their jobs in peace without being shot. As you know, I lost a very good person a while ago, was shot waiting for his wife. He was in the car, they robbed his car, they shot him. They killed him like it was nothing to it. She was walking to the car. It was a horror show. This issue directly impacts the functioning of the federal government and is a threat to America really. It's a threat to our country. We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. If you look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore. They're so far gone. We're not going to let it happen. We're not going to lose our cities over this, and this will go further. We're starting very strongly with DC, and we're going to clean it up real quick, very quickly as they say. Days ago, a former member of the DOGE staff was savagely beaten by a band of roving thugs after defending a young woman from an attempted carjacking. He was left dripping in blood. He thought he was dead with a broken nose and concussion. Can't believe that he's alive. He can't believe it. In June, a 21-year-old congressional intern was tragically killed after being hit by a stray bullet in a drive by shooting. A former Trump administration official named Mike Gill, fantastic person, was murdered last year in cold blood in a carjacking blocks away from the White House. We all knew him. Great person. Waiting for his wife as she was walking to the car. A Democrat congressman was also carjacked at gunpoint not far from the Capitol. And in 2023, an aide to Senator Rand Paul was stabbed in the chest and head by a demented lunatic as he walked down the street, just absolutely for no reason. Horrifically, last July 4 weekend, a three-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed while sitting in a car near the Capitol. It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness, and we're getting rid of the slums too. We have slums here. We're getting rid of them. I know it's not politically correct. You'll say, oh, it's so terrible. No, we're getting rid of the slums where they live. Caravans of mass youth rampaged through city streets at all times of the day. They were on ATVs, motorbikes. They travel pretty well. Entire neighborhoods are now under emergency curfews. Just this past weekend, gunfire went through. And you saw that, the Navy yard. I saw it this morning. I saw that they fought back against-- so see, they fight back until you knock the hell out of them because it's the only language they understand. But they fought back against law enforcement last night. And they're not going to be fighting back long because I've instructed them and told them, whatever happens, they love to spit in the face of the police as the police are standing up there in uniform, they're standing and they're screaming at them an inch away from their face. And then they start spitting in their face. And I said, you tell them, you spit and we hit, and they can hit real hard. It's a disgusting thing. I've watched that for years. For three or four years, I've watched them. The police are standing, and they're told, don't do anything under any circumstances. And you can see they want to get at it. And they're standing there, and people are spitting in their face, and they're not allowed to do anything. But now, they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want. This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city's local leadership. The radical left City Council adopted no cash bail. By the way, every place in the country where you have no cash bail is a disaster. That's what started the problem in New York and they don't change it. They don't want to change it. That's what started it in Chicago. I mean, bad politicians started it, bad leadership started it. But that was the one thing that's central, no cash bail. Somebody murders somebody, and they're out on no cash bail before the day is out. We're going to end that in Chicago. We're going to change the statute. I spoke with Pam and Todd and everybody. We're going to change the statue, and I'm going to have to get the Republicans to vote because the Democrats are weak on crime, totally weak on crime. They don't know why they want to stop because they get mugged too. But we're going to change no cash bail. We're going to change the statute and get rid of some of the other things. And we'll count on the Republicans in Congress and Senate to vote. We have the majority, so we'll vote. We don't have a big majority, but we've gotten everything, including the great big beautiful bill, got that done. And that's one of the greatest things that's ever happened to people in this country. They're starting to figure it out, how good it is. Biggest tax cut in history. So many things. But we'll be able to get that done. So Todd, if you and Pam can draw up things working with the people. I get it passed. We'll get it passed with the Republicans. Think of this, probably won't get one Democrat vote because they have no idea what they're doing. That's why they want men playing in women's sports. That's why they want transgender for everybody, everybody transgender. And they just got walloped in an election in a landslide. And they haven't changed one thing. I saw the other day, the certain gentleman, who's a very well-known politician, Democrat, was fighting like hell that men should be allowed to play in women's sports. They just don't get it. They said it's an 80/20 issue. And I think it's a 97 to 3 issue. And I don't know who the 3 are. I've never heard anybody come-- nobody's ever come up to me, sir, you have to let men play in women's sports. You have to do it, sir. Nobody's ever approached me. I don't know where this issue even comes from. I've never seen anything like it. But they turned our nation's capital into a sanctuary jurisdiction. That's the other thing. We have to get rid of sanctuary cities as quickly as possible. We're going to do it too, we have to, because it's sanctuary for criminals releasing illegal alien gang members onto the streets in 2022. Nearly 70% of criminals arrested in Washington went unprosecuted. That's not going to happen with the group we have standing aside and standing behind me. And at the Metropolitan Police Department, it's now reached a small number, relatively compared to what it was, but it's thousands of people. We have thousands of police. I was told today, sir, they want more police. I heard a number 3,500 police. That's a lot of police. 3,500. I thought they were going to say we only have 30 policemen or women. They said, we have 3,500, we need more. You don't need more. That's so many-- I never heard-- that's like an army. How could you need more than 3,000? It just happened two minutes ago. Sir, they've requested more police. Oh, what do they have? About 3,500. I said, 3,500. This is not a big area. It's ridiculous. What you need is rules and regulations, and you need the right people to implement them. And we have the right people here, that I can tell you. Look at the border. Biden said, there's nothing you can do. Kamala was the border czar. She never called one of the Border Patrol agents who are great, ICE is great. Never spoke to anybody. Never went there. But she was the border czar, and everybody said, it was impossible to fix. I fixed it in three months. No, really, I fixed it the first week but really fixed it over the last couple of months. And I mean, literally to a point where as I said, 0 illegals entering our country in the last 90 days. Pretty amazing. It's time for dramatic action. We're going to do the same thing over here. It's going to be a very safe city very soon. We're not looking to take years because a lot of people die in years. And we've got incredible people in this country, except we have to allow them to do their job, and we will deliver like nobody's ever delivered before. I actually think it's easy. If you're competent, it's easy. If you're incompetent, it's impossible. But I'm very competent. Last week, my administration surged 500 federal agents into the district, including from the FBI, ATF, DEA, Park Police, the US Marshals Service, the Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. A lot of nations, they don't have anything like that. They got some police and they're rough police. They don't have DEA, ATF, FBI, Park Police, the US Marshals Service, Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security. They got some police, but they're rough police, and they do their job. They don't have crime. We're not going to have crime either. They made dozens of arrests, and that's what starts to happen. Again, cashless bail. Watch what we do with that. Today, we're formally declaring a public safety emergency. This is an emergency. This is a tragic emergency. And it's embarrassing for me to be up here. I'm going to see Putin. I'm going to Russia on Friday. I don't like being up here talking about how unsafe and how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was with graffiti all over the walls. It's another part of it, by the way, because we're talking about safety, but we're also talking about beautification. We have the most beautiful, potentially, capital in the world. We always had. But people come from Iowa, they come from Indiana, they come, and then they get mugged. Not going to happen. Keep coming because by the time you get your trip set, it's going to be safe again, and it's going to be clean very quickly. We're going to replace the medians that are falling down all over the roads. We're going to replace the potholes. We're going to put a nice new coat of asphalt over the top. No, we don't have to rip the road out and spend seven years building a new road because they cut everything, because some designers said, well, we need a quarter of an inch more turn for safety reasons. No, we're going to do it right. We're going to get it done quickly. So today, we're declaring public safety emergency in the District of Columbia. And Attorney General Pam Bondi, who's fantastic, is taking command of the Metropolitan Police Department as of this moment. And I'll be making the appropriate notifications to Congress and to the mayor. Our new DEA administrator, who's one of the top in the country, he better be Terry if you're not going to get rid of you so fast. Terry Cole. Terry, thanks. Very good. We just got him, the most highly recommended person. And you'll be designated as the interim Federal Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Department. OK. And you run them tough. They're good. You have a lot of good people. You have people that shouldn't be there. You also have people that shouldn't be there. They got in there because of woke. But you have a lot of great police. And those people are the ones that want to help you. This city will no longer be a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals. We will have full, seamless, integrated cooperation at all levels of law enforcement and will deploy officers across the district with an overwhelming presence. You have more police, and you'll be so happy because you'll be safe. When you walk down the street, you're going to see police, or you're going to see FBI agents. We going to have a lot of agents on the streets, and you're going to have a lot of essentially military. And we will bring in the military if it's needed, by the way. We're going to have National Guard. But Pete Hegseth will tell you about it. We will bring in the military if needed. People say, oh, that's so terrible. He's going to bring in-- it's been used many times over the years. I don't think we'll need it. I think we've got so many great people, including the people that are in the Police Department with proper leadership. They will immediately begin massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers, and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street. Maybe get them out of the country because a lot of them came into our country illegally. They shouldn't have been allowed in. They come from Venezuela. They come from all over the world. We're going to get them the hell out. They won't be here long. But some of these people, a lot of them, are homegrown criminals. And these are bad people. These are rough people. And this is just a list of some of the people that were given to me today that were criminals removed from the DC streets this weekend. They were rough, rough and tough, but we're rougher and tougher. Look at these people here. They're not going to be your local school teacher. Look at this guy, he has killed people numerous times. They're not going to be an asset. They will never be an asset to society. I don't care. I know we all want to say, oh, they're going to be rehabbed. It's not going to be rehabbed. I'm going to ask Doug Burgum to come up and say a couple of words, because he's in charge, as you know, he's interior, but he's in charge of the US Park Police. And I've heard so many great things about the Park Police. They're proud of it. They've been there for a long time. Their families oftentimes grow into their roles. They love the country. They love this area. So, Doug, could you say a few words, please? Thank you, Mr. President. On behalf of the US Park Police, this is the oldest federal police force in the nation. They were formed in 1791 by none other than President George Washington. They've got the awesome responsibility of protecting our nation's most sacred monuments. And the National Mall, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Statue of Liberty, and out west, the Presidio, and the Golden Gate area. These folks have tens of millions of visitors a year, the kind of people that President Trump is talking about that come from around the country and around the world to see our see our sacred and learn about our history and our sacred monuments. They've been doing a fantastic job, but they are so pleased the rank and file that President Trump is now allowing them to enforce the law. As those of you that live in the city may know that the circles and the triangle parks that are spread throughout DC are actually federal park property. So the US Park Police also have responsibility for that. These became littered with homeless camps under the Biden administration. All of you saw that. Since President Trump's executive order on March 27, making DC safe and beautiful again, the US Park Police have removed over 70 homeless camps. And President Trump also talked about beautification. They're stopping and enforcing the laws against graffiti on our monuments. They've removed over 80 specific attacks against our history with graffiti on our monuments. So they continue to do a great job, whether it's in their vehicles, on foot, or on the mounted police that you see around the National Mall. And President Trump, they thank you. The rank and file is so happy to be enforcing the law. Again, thank you for your leadership. And they're excited about the announcement you're making today. Thank you. Very good. Great job you're doing. Thank you very much. Pete, could you say something about the military, if you would? Well, Mr. President, it's an honor to be here. And at your direction this morning, we mobilized the DC National Guard. It will be operationalized by the Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, through the DC Guard. You will see them flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week. At your direction as well, sir, there are other units we are prepared to bring in. Other National Guard units, other specialized units, they will be strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners. This is nothing new for DOD. As the president noted at the border, we've got 10,000 troops down there who have been operating in defense cooperation areas, defense zones, where there's 0, 0 illegal crossings because of troops on strykers scanning the border. We've been protecting other people's borders for 20 years. It's about time we protect our own. And we're working with ICE and CBP. In Los Angeles, we did the same thing, working with the California National Guard, working with ICE officers. ICE officers deserve to do their job and not be attacked. We will work alongside all DC police and federal law enforcement to ensure this city is safe, this city is beautiful. And as I always say about President Trump to the troops, he has their back. And my message to the National Guard and federal law enforcement in Washington is we have your back as well. Be tough. Be strong. We're right behind you. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to ask Pam because she's now, as you heard me say, she's really in charge of a lot of what we're talking about. She's done an incredible job. People are going to start to see the fruits of her labor. And Pam, maybe you could say a few words about what we're talking about here? Sure, President. Let me be crystal clear, crime in DC is ending and ending today. We are going to use every power we have to fight criminals here. President, thank you for caring about our capital. Families come here every summer. Our museums are free. We have the National Zoo. We have the National Gallery. DC should be a place where everyone can come and feel safe. Behind me and to my side, we have some of the best career law enforcement and prosecutors in the country who are ready to take this on. As the president said, Terry Cole is going to be supervising the Metro Police Department. Gary Serralta, our US Marshal, is going to be supervising command and control, the entire operation. Our Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche and I will be working with them closely, along with our great FBI director, Kash Patel. Kash is going to talk to you in a minute about what we did in Virginia recently with Governor Youngkin. Many of you covered that, and it was tremendously successful. Not only that, our secret weapon here in DC is US attorney Jeanine Pirro, one of the toughest prosecutors and a former judge. And she is going to be talking about juvenile crime, how it's out of control here, and what she's going to do to fight back. No more. No more crime rampant in our beautiful capital. No more teenage girls beating a disabled man to death. No more of that. No more drive bys. We're going to do everything we can. And working with the ATF, ATF director Driscoll and commander of the army, we're going to all work together. That's what we all do in this room. We work together. We fight. Do not underestimate one person in this room. We're going to make DC beautiful. We're going to make DC safe again. One other thing. Just at the wharf a few days ago, the area of the wharf, Terry Cole reached out to me not even nightfall on the weekend where so many families and tourists go, a guy is overdosing from fentanyl on a park bench in the middle of families around. They administer Narcan and saved his life. No more of that. The President of the United States is going to clean up DC, and we're going to be there to help him, and we're going to be successful. Thank you. Thank you. Kash, talk about Northern Virginia, if you would. Northern Virginia, we had a big success. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for your leadership, deputy attorney general, the rest of our interagency partners. Mr. President, the following is what happens when you let good cops be cops. And I just want to highlight that before I get into Northern Virginia. This year alone under President Trump's administration, we've had over 4,000 child victims identified and found. That's a 33% increase from the same time period last year, 33% increase. We've had a seizure of 1,500 kilograms of fentanyl up to this date. That is a 25% increase since the same time period last year. And just to put it in perspective, 1,500 kilograms of fentanyl is enough to kill 115 million Americans, 115 million Americans. Cops are getting after it. The FBI has arrested 19,000 people this year alone, thanks to President Trump's administration. That's double than where we were this time last year. And we have also arrested 1,600 people who have committed violent acts against children, children. 270 of them are human traffickers of children. Mr. President, this is what happens when you have great leadership at the attorney general with Pam Bondi, your administration's priority of protecting the homeland and protecting American citizens and protecting our children. And the murder rates are plummeting. We are now able to report that the murder rate is on track to be the lowest in US history, in modern recorded US history thanks to this team behind me and President Trump's priorities. And how do we do it? And what are we going to bring to DC? What we did in Northern Virginia, thanks to Terry Cole and Governor Youngkin and the team, we stood up a task force out in my Northern Virginia field office. And we said, let's let good cops be cops. Let's get them the intelligence and what they need. And let's get the red tape out of their way. And let's get DOJ partnered up with us to bring great prosecutions. And that's exactly what we did. In one month, we arrested 545 violent felons, 545 in the state of Virginia, thanks to Governor Youngkin's partnership. And that simplicity in law enforcement is what's coming to Washington, DC. When you let good cops be cops, when you give them the intel they need, when you work with our Homeland Security Task Force, when you work with Terry, and Gadi and I go way back to Miami, these guys are great leaders of their respective departments and law enforcement capacities, and when you have the DOJ and President Trump driving behind this mission, we are going to clean up Washington, DC. And we're going to do it the right way, the lawful way, and we're going to make sure Washington, DC is safe again. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Attorney General. Thank you very much. [INAUDIBLE] Thank you, Kash. So the process begins right now. It actually started over the weekend, and we confronted a lot of very bad people. But it's going to be something that will be pretty amazing to you as you watch it. And I think most of you will say, it's a beautiful thing to do it right. We're going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can't walk on. They've been very dirty, got a lot of problems. But we've already started that. We're moving the encampments away, trying to take care of people. Some of those people, we don't know how they even got there. Some of those people are from different countries, different parts of the world. Nobody knows who they are. They have no idea but they're there. We're getting rid of the people from underpasses and public spaces from all over the city. There are many places that they can go, and we're going to help them as much as you can help. But they will not be allowed to turn our capital into a wasteland for the world to see. The Metropolitan Police Department and the federal authorities will be supported in the effort, a really big effort. The 800 DC National Guardsmen that we'll put on and much more if necessary. Much more. Remember I said I offered 10,000 once. Remember I said to a certain person, a person who I thought always was highly overrated, not very competent, but I said, if you need him, we'll give you 10,000 of the military or the National Guard. They turned me down. But if necessary, we're going to move service members directly to joining the guardsmen, and that will take place very rapidly. And that will be done in conjunction with Pam and with Pete and everybody else. Washington, DC should be one of the safest, cleanest, and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world. And we're going to make it that. We're going to make it safe. We're going to make it smart. We're going to make it beautiful. So beautiful. Some of the buildings, we're going to add to it. You see what we've done at the White House. This White House is a whole different building. I do that in my part time because it's a natural instinct. As a real estate person, I was very good at that, and I was very good at fixing things up. I like fixing things up. You see what's happening. The marble floors are being reinstalled, renovated, fixed. The whole place is becoming very beautiful. We're going to be adding a magnificent ballroom. Most beautiful ballroom I think anywhere. We need it. I would have certainly loved to have had it today. I think we would have filled it up. A lot of you are standing outside. Can't get in this room. I have never seen the room like this, which tells me that you want to talk about-- I mean, this was a DC News Conference. It tells me that you want to talk about crime in DC and beautification of DC, but I'm going to put that-- that's easy. And I think, frankly, fixing the crime with the pros, fixing the crime is easy too. A person who I've known for a long time, and she's been incredible, she was a fantastic, one of the best ever district attorneys in New York. She was in Westchester, and she became a judge, very successful judge. And then she went into showbiz because she was such a good DA and such a good judge. Tough judge but fair, always fair. Nobody ever complained about that, but she was tough. And because of that and her reputation, she went into showbiz. So a lot of people, they think of Janine as showbiz. Actually, showbiz was not her thing. And she did great. She was on, along with a couple of my friends, on the number one show, and she did great, but this is what she loves doing. This is really her baby. What she's going to do is going to be incredible. And I'd like to introduce her to speak for just a few seconds on what she has in mind, what she wants to do. We're going to be appointing some judges. We have some open spots, and we're going to take people because the judges are letting killers out. They just say, go, that's OK. Don't worry about it. So we're putting some Pam recommended, Todd recommended, some judges that are great Janine recommended. Jeanine has given me three great candidates already. We have about 10 open spots, and we could probably create some more. We need them. Janine, would you say a few words, please? Thank you very much, Mr. President. And thank you, Madam Attorney General. And you have been listening to President Donald Trump there, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He is announcing the federal government taking over the DC Police Department in hopes of ending and stopping crime in the city. We should note, though, on the backdrop of all of this, new crime numbers have come out that show that crime is down in the DC area. But again, the president announcing this because he says, crime is taking over the city. Right now, we can hear Jeanine Pirro speaking. So let's listen in to what she is saying. And I'm not going to stand here and go over and over the cases. But what I can tell you is this, I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else. They don't care where they are. They can be in DuPont Circle, but they know that we can't touch them. Why? Because the laws are weak. I can't touch you if you're 14, 15, 16, 17 years old and you have a gun. I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest, intent to kill. I convict him, and you know what the judge gives him? Probation, says, you should go to college. We need to go after the DC Council and their absurd laws. We need to get rid of this concept of no cash bail. We need to recognize that the people who matter are the law abiding citizens. And it starts today. But it's not going to end today because the president is going to do everything we need to do to make sure that these emboldened criminals understand we see you, we're watching you, and we're going to change the law to catch you. And my final note is this, these kids understand that the jurisdiction is through the state attorney general, Brian Schwab. I did a poster of the young man from DOGE who was beaten bloody with a severe concussion, a broken nose. And then I did a poster of what happens to those kids because I can't arrest him, I can't prosecute them. They go to family court, and they get to do yoga and arts and crafts. Enough. It changes today. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. You're welcome. Great job. Thank you. If I could, I just signed some executive orders I'd like to have will, please come up, and we'll let the people know what we signed. Do you want to put them down? Yes, sir. Go ahead. A short while ago in the Oval Office, President Trump signed two crucial executive actions to deal with the emergency crime conditions we currently face in the District of Columbia. The first of these was an executive order, as President Trump said before, invoking his powers under Section 40 of the Home Rule Act to take federal control of the DC Metropolitan Police Department. Along with that executive order, President Trump signed the statutorily required notification letters to Mayor Bowser and to the relevant House and Senate Committee leaders. The second major executive action that President Trump signed was a presidential memorandum directing the Secretary of Defense to utilize the National Guard to address the conditions we see on our streets here in DC. It also authorized the Secretary of Defense to work with state governors to utilize their National Guard units, if necessary, as well. These are bold, decisive steps intended to combat the out of control crime conditions we've seen on DC streets for far too long. And I, for one, am deeply proud to be part of an administration that's finally coming to terms with these issues, sir. Thank you very much. Sir. Thank you. So just to conclude, Washington, DC should be one of the safest, cleanest, most beautiful places anywhere in the world. It was years ago. We had one problem that was a pretty big problem. The radical left got out of control, and they started trying to rip down statues. And I said, let's go pass a law real fast. We're going to do it real fast, but we were blocked by the Democrats who do not want safety. Nobody gets it. I don't get it. They don't get it because they can't get votes. I don't know how they can win an election with this, but they don't want safety. And I found an old statute, very old, early 1900s that said, if you so much as touch or even think about destroying a statue or a monument in Washington, DC, you go to jail for 10 years with no probation, no anything. In other words, slightly different than we have today. Today, we have cashless bail. Today, you get jailed 10 years. No curtailed sentence, 10 years. We took it out. Nobody used it. It was never used because it was harsh. And you remember they started to rip down the Statue of Abraham Lincoln. I said, that's a tough one to rip down. He was pretty good, Pam. I think he was pretty good. When the ropes started going around Abraham Lincoln to pull him down, Andrew Jackson, others, and they were heading to the Jefferson Memorial, Thomas Jefferson, they were going to do big number there, I said, it's time. And I signed that statute immediately. We had it updated. We made it use the same language. All passed by Congress, and I announced it's 10 years in jail. No probation, no anything, 10 years. No curtail sentence if you so much as touch a statue in Washington, DC. And it was an amazing sight. Beautiful sight. Everybody just left. The ropes were hanging around Andrew Jackson, and there were two ropes around Abraham Lincoln. They left the rope, but everybody just left. And it was the last problem we ever had. You know that was the last problem that we ever had with the statues? They were going wild. And somebody came to me and said, sir, in 1910, I don't want to give you an exact because you'll say, Donald Trump gave us wrong dates, around early on. If I'm slightly off, they make you sound a little bad, so I won't be-- I won't put myself in that position. I won't put you in that position because I think everybody agrees with what we're doing today. But when I signed that thing, it was like a miracle. Everybody left. They were gone. They were starting to march down. They started the march toward Thomas Jefferson, and I figured he was always going to be safe. But they found something with him, and they found something with Abraham Lincoln and even in the name George Washington and California, numerous places changed the name of George Washington High School and various other places. They took George Washington's name. This was a sick woke culture that I think we've largely ended. And a lot of those people that were woke are now turning out to be the opposite. I won't go so far as to say MAGA. It's a very special category, but they've gotten out of that. But we have people that love this country and they love this really beautiful capital. It is. I flew over it the other day, and I said, what a beautiful place. But if there's crime all over the streets when you get there, it doesn't look so beautiful. But we're going to make it beautiful again. We're going to fix it with crime, and also as we're doing that, we're going to start doing things that we know how to do, that I know how to do better than anybody, I guess, because of my experience from previous life. But not only are we stopping the crime, we're going to clean up the trash and the graffiti and the grime and the dirt and the broken marble panels and all of the things they've done to hurt this city. And we're going to restore the city back to the gleaming capital that everybody wants it to be. It's going to be something very special. All of these people are really-- could I shake your hand, Gary, please? You're going to be so important here. You are going to be-- you're going to be that guy I hope I don't have to fire him in two weeks because he's too soft. I don't think he's too soft. If I do, I will though. Is it OK if you're soft, weak, and pathetic like so many people? I will fire you so fast. You're not going to have to worry about that. No, I think you're going to do a fantastic job. And everybody in this room, they may not express it, but they all want that to happen. They want to be safe and they have families too. So it's an honor to have such a large group. I've done this for years now. Hard to believe. I've never seen this room so packed. In fact, I'm sure it's a violation of every fire code. But we'll let you stay anyway. You're taking a chance. And with that, we'll say maybe if you could-- oh, wow. We could be here all day long. If we could keep the first questions perhaps to this subject, and then we'll go on to a few others. Please. REPORTER 1: Mr. President, thank you so much. Can you talk about how personal of an issue this is? You talked about flying over the Washington Monument and seeing the pride of what DC is. And do you believe that the status of the city, the cleanliness, the way that crime is low is a direct reflection on how the country is run? Yeah, I do. I think the Capitol, look, everyone comes here. They're all coming. All the leaders, they're all wanting to come. And I say it, I've said it again, but I'm really just quoting other leaders from NATO, from the Middle East, King of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE. I was over there. We brought back $5.1 trillion of investment into our country. But a month and a half ago, I was at NATO. We had a great thing. They agreed to put up 5% instead of 2%. 2% they didn't pay. 5% is already paid. We had a great meeting, and they all said the same thing. They said, our country was dead. They thought our country was gone. One year ago, they said, your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. We do. We have the hottest country in the world right now. The tariffs have helped. It's given us not only the money, it's in billions, trillions of dollars of money, but it gives us great power over enemies. We solved five wars with Pakistan and India. We just solved one, Azerbaijan and Armenia. It was a war was raging for 37 years, and the two leaders got up and they said, we never thought this would be solved. Russia tried to solve it. They all tried to solve it. It was a very tough situation, but we got it done and got it done. And I said to the two men, I said, are you guys friends? And they had a hard time. They've been killing each other for 37 years, right? The one was there five years, one was there for 22 years. He said, my whole life, I've been fighting this war, and you got it solved. But we did many of those. We did in the Congo and Rwanda. That's been going on for 30 years, 8 to 9 million people killed that they know of. But it was raging, and we got that solved. We got a lot of them done. It's a great honor. But you want to have-- when they come, the leaders come to our country to sign documents that the war is over or whatever or for other reasons, they come for trade, and you want them to come through so beautifully. You ride down those roads, everything should be perfect. You shouldn't have medians falling down into the roadway. Median, the metal things that are always-- somebody had a great lobbyist because I've never seen them look good. I've been looking at those things with the little-- they're always broken and bad. But here, they're really bad, and we're going to either put new or fix it. And it's not expensive. It's not really expensive. And we're going to fix our roads a little bit. We're going to clean up our sidewalks. You have countries where every Saturday, the people go out and they wash their sidewalks in front of their stores or their houses. They scrub, they scrub their sidewalks. So we aren't quite at that level yet, I don't think. Gadi, we're not quite there yet, but maybe we will. They go out and they scrub. I think it's so beautiful to hear that and to see those stories. But we're going to make it clean. But just to finish with your question, it's a very, very strong reflection of our country. And when they see a bad city-- my father always used to tell me, I had a wonderful father, very smart. And he used to say, son, when you walk into a restaurant, and you see a dirty front door, don't go in. Because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen is dirty also. Same thing with the capital. If our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us. So it's a very good question. [SHOUTING] REPORTER 2: Question for you on this specific issue. Do you expect more cities to follow DC's path if this goes through? So the idea is that Chicago, LA, San Francisco, would they expect similar action what we've seen in DC? And the other question, sir. There is reporting that the administration is going to reclassify marijuana. Would that send mixed messages that if marijuana is OK, some drugs are OK? But we're trying to clean up crime. How do they go hand in hand? We're only looking at that. That's early. But somebody reported it, which is fine. We're looking at it. Some people like it, some people hate it. Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because if it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children. But we're looking at reclassification, and we'll make a determination, I would say, over the next few weeks. And that determination hopefully will be the right one. It's a very complicated subject, the subject of marijuana. I've heard great things having to do with medical, and I've had bad things having to do with just about everything else. But medical and for pain and various things, I heard some pretty good things. But for other things, I've heard some pretty bad things. The other part of your question, I mean, we're just going to see what happens with it all. We're going to have a tremendous success on what we're doing. Other cities are hopefully watching this. They're all watching, just like everyone's watching here. They're all watching, and maybe they'll self clean up, and maybe they'll self do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem. I mean, if you go back, this whole thing with cashless bail is a disaster. So many problems came that we never had before. So they're watching us today. And if they don't learn their lesson, if they haven't studied us properly-- because we're going to be very successful. I have 0 doubt about that. It's going to be so-- it's a question of will it be really fast, like the border. They used to say-- Biden used to say, I need legislation. You didn't need-- I didn't get any legislation. I called up our people, and we did a great job. Tom Homan was great. As you know, our secretary did a great job. They did a great job. There's no games. They didn't play games. And we're going to have the same thing here. But then I'm going to look at New York in a little while. Let's do this. Let's do this together. Let's see. It's going to go pretty quickly. And if we need to, we're going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster. We have a mayor there who's totally incompetent. He's an incompetent man, and we have an incompetent governor there. Pritzker is an incompetent. His family threw him out of the business, and he ran for governor. And now, I understand he wants to be president, but I noticed he lost a little weight, so maybe he has a chance. You never know what happens. But Pritzker is a gross, incompetent guy thrown out of the family business. But when I look at Chicago and I look at LA, if we didn't go to LA three months ago, LA would be burning like the part that didn't burn. If he would have allowed the water to come down, which I told him about in my first term, I said, you're going to have problems, let it come down. We actually sent in our military to have the water come down into LA. They still didn't want it to come down after the fires, but that was it. We have a coming down, but hopefully, LA is watching. That mayor also, the city is burning. They lost 25,000 homes. I went there the day after the fire. You were there, and I saw people standing in front of a burned down home. Their homes were incinerated. They weren't like-- even the steel was literally, it was all warped and literally disintegrated because of the winds and the flame and the whole thing, like a blowtorch. They were standing on this beautiful day, maybe a couple of days after, we gave it a little time because what they had suffered almost 25,000 homes. And you see what's happening now. They didn't give their permits. I went to a town hall meeting. I said, we're going to get you the federal permits, which are much harder almost immediately. Lee Zeldin is a star. He did an incredible job. They have all their federal permits. They don't have their city permits. And the mayor said to me, we think we can have them in two years. I was walking down the street, and I met with firemen and police. And I was saying hello to many people that were standing in front of their homes with yellow tape. You can't go in, you can't go onto the lot. And those people wanted to start rebuilding their homes then and there. And the mayor said, we should be able to get them the permits within two years. I said, that's a shame. Two years. Are you kidding? I'm going to get them the federal permit almost immediately. Two years. And she wrote back, well, maybe one year. The place was booing her out of the place. They don't have their permits to build their homes. And now, they're talking about putting-- this is among the most beautiful areas was in the country. Now, they're talking about putting low income housing there. Can you believe this? I love low income housing. I made money with low income housing. I built low income housing. I know more about low income housing than luxury housing. I know about everything real estate. They want to replace some of those homes with low income housing. They haven't gotten their permits yet. We've gotten all the federal permits, which are much tougher to get. And it was done almost immediately through Lee Zeldin and federal environmental. And I watched the other day, those people are angry. And now, they had tremendous-- they love that area. They love the whole big area. Different places. But they loved it. It was all luxury stuff and beautiful stuff, and some wasn't that luxury, but the level of love for that neighborhood, their neighborhoods was incredible. And you know what? I watched people on television there, they want to go. They want to leave. They've lost their spirit. They've lost their heart because the mayor is incompetent. And Gavin Newsom is incompetent. You've got a good line of bullshit but that's about it. He's incompetent. And you have Los Angeles, it's amazing. The first thing I did, I got the Olympics to go there. I was the one that got it. And by a rare thing that happened, I'll be the president. I was very upset because I got the Olympics there, and I said, I won't be president when it comes, but bad things happened and illegal things happen. Really illegal things happen. Now, it turns out one good thing was I'm going to be the president for the Olympics for 2050, for 250, which is going to be fantastic, and also for the World Cup. So we have a lot of good things, and I hope 250 is going to be-- 250th anniversary is going to be the best. But when I looked at those people, and I saw last night on television that they still don't have their permits, it's a disgrace what's happened in. [SHOUTING] REPORTER 3: OK. Thank you. The China tariff deadline is tonight. Do you plan to extend that? We'll see what happens. We've been dealing very nicely with China, as you probably have heard. They have tremendous tariffs that they're paying to the United States of America. And we'll see what happens. They've been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with President Xi and myself. [SHOUTING] REPORTER 4: You mentioned your upcoming meeting with President Putin. Can you tell us what you hope to get out of that? And whether you'll consider inviting President Zelenskyy to join. So you have to understand, this is a war that should have never happened. This is a war that wouldn't have happened if I were president. Would have never happened. It was the apple of his eye. Got along very well with President Putin. But if you look under President Bush, they took a lot of territory. Under President Obama, they took a lot of territory. Under Biden, they essentially took the whole thing. It's just a question of time. Under Trump, you know what they took? Nothing, nothing. I was the one that said, you can't build your pipeline that was half built. I came in, I stopped the pipeline. It's called Nord Stream II. Nobody knows that. Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream II. You might have not even heard of-- biggest pipeline in the world. I stopped it. I was not a friend of Russia, but I got along well with Putin. It's always good to get along with other countries if possible, but that doesn't mean you roll over like Biden did. Biden came in, and he immediately approved the pipeline. I couldn't believe it. Then they say, Trump wasn't tough on Russia. I wasn't tough? I was the toughest. Putin said, if you're not tough, I would hate like hell to see you-- I stopped the biggest economic development job, the biggest job that Russia had ever built. I stopped it. It was dead. And this low IQ president came in, and he let them build the pipeline and supply oil and gas all over Europe. So this is really a feel out meeting a little bit. And President Putin invited me to get involved. He wants to get involved. I believe he wants to get it over with. Now, I've said that a few times, and I've been disappointed because I'd have a great call with him, and then missiles would be lobbed into Kyiv or some other place. And you'd have 60 people laying on the road dying. I said, that's cold, that's cold, but it's a violent war. 5,000 to 7,000 people a week are dying. And there's nobody from here. They're all Russian and Ukrainian people and some people from the city. It's a much smaller number. But still, those missiles do damage, and they kill a lot of people but mostly soldiers. And they're young soldiers, although in the case of Ukraine, they're getting much older. They're drafting 60-year-olds now. It's a terrible thing to witness, and I think I have an obligation. Look, this is Joe Biden's war. This is not my war. I made a deal with NATO a month ago. You covered it very accurately actually, where we don't pay anything anymore. We're not paying anything. They are buying things from us, and NATO is paying us. I got it raised from 2% of GDP to 5%. And they're paying us for everything that we send. We're not paying. But Biden approved $350 billion. Europe has spent $100 billion. The money that's been spent and the death is incredible. It's the worst thing that's happened by far, the worst that's happened since World War II. So I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin, and I'm going to be telling him, you got to end this war, you got to end it. And he wasn't going to mess with me. This war would have never happened. We had a discussion about it one time, and we never had that discussion again. It would have never happened. And when the election was rigged and then Biden took office, which was barely took office, the autopen took office, bad things started happening. Bad things, stupid things were said, and it ended up in a war. And I don't believe this will happen anymore because I have that pretty well covered. This could end up in a third World War. This could have been a third World War. I don't think that's going to happen now, but I thought it was very respectful that the President of Russia is coming to our country as opposed to us going to his country or even a third party place. But I think we'll have constructive conversations. Then after that meeting, immediately, maybe as I'm flying out, maybe as I'm leaving the room, I'll be calling the European leaders who I get along with very well. And I have a great relationship, I think, with all of them. And I get along with Zelenskyy. But I disagree with what he's done. Very, very severely disagree. This is a war that should have never happened, wouldn't have happened. But I'll be speaking to Zelenskyy. The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and Putin or Zelenskyy and Putin and me. I'll be there if they need, but I want to have a meeting set up between the two leaders. I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelenskyy was saying, well, I have to get constitutional approval. I mean, he's got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs an approval to do a land swap because there'll be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody to the good, for the good of Ukraine. Good stuff. Not bad stuff. Also, some bad stuff for both. So it's good, and there's bad, but it's very complex because you have lines that are very uneven, and there'll be some swapping. There'll be some changes in land. And the word that they would use is they make changes. We're going to change the lines. The battle lines. Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They've occupied some very prime territory. We're going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine. But they've taken some very prime territory. They've taken largely ocean-- in real estate, we call it oceanfront property. That's always the most valuable property. If you're on a lake or a river or an ocean, it's always the best property. Well, Ukraine, a lot of people don't know that Ukraine was largely 1,000 miles of ocean that's gone, other than one small area, Odessa. It's a small area. There's just a little bit of water left. So I'm going to go and see the parameters. Now, I may leave and say, good luck, and that'll be the end. I may say, this is not going to be settled. I mean, there are those that believe that Putin wanted all of Ukraine. I happen to be one of them by the way. I think if it weren't for me, he would not be even talking to anybody else right now. But I'm going to meet with him. We're going to see what the parameters are. I'm then going to call up President Zelenskyy and the European leaders right after the meeting. Yeah. And I'm going to tell them what kind of a deal-- I'm not going to make a deal. It's not up to me to make a deal. I think a deal should be made for both. I think Russia has to get back into building their country. It's a massive country. I think they have 11 time zones if you can believe it. It's a massive-- from the standpoint of land, it's by far the largest. They have tremendous potential in Russia to do well. They're not doing well. Their economy is not doing well right now because it's been very well disturbed by this. It doesn't help when the President of the United States tells their largest or second largest oil buyer that we're putting a 50% tariff on if you buy oil from Russia. That was a big blow. And then they say, gee, he wasn't so tough. Nobody else would have done that. And I haven't stopped there. I mean, look, I was all set to do things far bigger than that, but I got a call that they'd like to meet. And I'm going to see what they want to meet about. I'd like to see a ceasefire. I'd like to see the best deal that could be made for both parties. It takes two to tango, right? So ultimately, I'll have a meeting next week. I had a great relationship with him, considering the fact that I was not nice to him because of the pipeline. I ended the pipeline. I also gave the javelins. Do you ever hear of a javelin? Javelin is called a tank Buster. They say that Obama gave them sheets and I gave them javelins. If it weren't for me, all those tanks that were destroyed at the first days of the war because the tanks got stuck in the mud. Some commander made a better-- they would have been-- they would have been in Kyiv in four hours going down the highway. But a Russian general made a brilliant decision to go through the farmland instead. And they just had torrential rains. And the rains were so bad, and it was mud. And those tanks got stuck in the mud. I don't know who that general is but knowing Vladimir, he's probably not around any longer because all those tanks were stuck in the mud, and they went along with the javelins. I gave him the javelins. you know that? I gave them javelins. They gave him sheets. But I'm going to meet with President Putin, and we're going to see what he has in mind. And if it's a fair deal, I'll reveal it to the European Union leaders and to the NATO leaders and also to President Zelenskyy. I think, out of respect, I'll call him first, and then I'll call them after. And I may say, lots of luck. Keep fighting. Or I may say, we can make a deal. I will tell you this. I've seen a poll coming out of Ukraine. 88% of the people would like to see a deal made. And if you go back three years, everybody was gung ho for war. Everybody's gung ho for war until you have it. It's an amazing thing. I had it with a couple of countries where I couldn't get a deal done with one particular country, and I just couldn't. The guy's great. He's a friend of mine. Great. Good leader. Tough as hell. I couldn't get the deal done. And then he went into war for a short period of time. You know who I'm talking about, first term. And it was nasty. Guys being killed all over the place. And he went through one week of war, and I was able to get the deal done. He said, this is nasty. Yes, please. [SHOUTING] To follow up on what you were saying there. First of all, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not invited on Friday? He wasn't a part of it? I would say he could go, but he's gone to a lot of meetings. He's been there for 3 and 1/2 years. Nothing happened. And what is the definition-- I mean, do you want somebody that's been doing this for 3 and 1/2 years? What's the definition of a good deal? I'll tell you after I hear what the deal is, because there could be many definitions. You're talking about a very large and complex situation. Now, I tell you, the war that I just settled with Azerbaijan and with, as you know, Armenia was almost as complex as this one, having to do with routes, trade-- Meeting on Friday with Vladimir Putin? We're going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin. And at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made. How would you know? Because that's what I do, I make deals. [SHOUTING] Please go. REPORTER 5: Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to ask you two questions, one about China and one about Russia, if I could. On China, your administration agreed to send the most advanced or advanced NVIDIA and AMD chips. No, obsolete. No, obsolete. And then 15% of the profits-- You mean, the 20s. No, no. This is an old chip that China already has. And I deal with Jensen, who is a great guy, and NVIDIA. The chip that we're talking about, the H20. It's an old chip. China already has it in a different form, different name. But they have it or they have a combination of 2 will make up for it and even then some. Now, Jensen also has-- Jensen is a very brilliant guy, and Jensen also has a new chip, the Blackwell. Do you know what the Blackwell is? The Blackwell is super duper advanced. I wouldn't make a deal with that, although it's possible I'd make a deal, a somewhat enhanced in a negative way Blackwell. In other words, take 30% to 50% off of it. But that's the latest and the greatest in the world. Nobody has it. They won't have it for five years. But the H20 is obsolete. It's one of those things, but it still has a market. So I said, listen, I want 20% if I'm going to approve this for you, for the country, for our country, for the US. I don't want it myself. Every time I say, 747, I want, I want, yeah, for the Air Force. So I just want it-- so when I say I want 20, I want for the country. I only care about the country. I don't care about myself. And he said, would you make it 15? So we negotiated a little deal. So he's selling a essentially old chip that Huawei has a similar chip, a chip that does the same thing. And I said, good. If I'm going to give it to you-- because they have a stopper, what we call a stopper, not allowed to do it, it's really known as a restrictive covenant. And I said, if I'm going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something because I'm giving you a release. I released them only from the H20. Now on the Blackwell, I think he's coming to see me again about that. But that will be a unenhanced version of the big one. I don't know if you know it. We will sometimes sell fighter jets to a country. And we'll give them 20% less than we have. Do you know what I mean? That's the same. [SHOUTING] REPORTER 5: Do you see a time, Mr. President, when there could be normal trade between the US and Russia should your meeting go well, should there be peace? I do, yeah. Russia has a very valuable piece of land. If Vladimir Putin would go toward business instead of toward war-- it's a warring nation, that's what they do. They fight a lot of wars. A friend of mine said, Russia's tough because they just keep on fighting. They beat Hitler, so did we. And they beat Napoleon. They've been doing this for a long time. I asked a question to a very, very smart man that some people like and some people don't like, Viktor Orban from Hungary, the head of Hungary. And he's in that same area and knows the two countries very well. This was before Biden didn't do anything to get us out of it. He could have gotten us out of that. It would have never happened. I said, so can Russia be beaten by Ukraine? He looked at me like, what a stupid question? He said, Russia is a massive country, and they win their country and they win their life through wars. They fight wars. That's what they do. He said, China beat you with trade. Russia beat you with war. That was a very interesting statement. China has not beaten us with trade, not when I'm in charge. But they were beating Biden with trade. But they never beat us with trade. Don't forget China had to pay $400 billion worth of tariffs when I was last time. That was last time. And if we didn't have COVID, all of this stuff would already-- we would be loaded. We're finding hundreds of billions of dollars of cash is pouring into our country now because of tariffs. And all we're doing is we're doing what they do to us. It's so beautiful to see it. They found last month, as you saw, $25 billion of excess cash flow. They're saying, where did it come from? I said, I'll tell you where it came from. It came from a place called tariffs. And we're doing very well. We're really doing well. But I expect to have a meeting with Putin that I think it will be good, but it might be bad. And I'm here for one reason, to get rid of a war that somebody else started. It should have never happened. And if I could end it, great. Complex war. A lot of bad blood. A lot of bad blood. But Zelenskyy's been there for 3 and 1/2 years. So if you put him in a room-- now, I will say this. Ultimately, I'm going to put the two of them in a room. I'll be there or I won't be there, and I think it'll get solved. Yeah. Please, you.

Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President. Excuse me. I'm going to suggest because-- could you-- do you have any other questions?

I have got, yes. Yes, sir. --on DC because I don't want them-- I don't want them to be-- wait, wait, wait. These are-- these are incredible people. I don't want them to be standing up here on subjects that-- does anybody have a question of them, and then you guys can leave. [OVERLAPPING VOICES] OK, a question. Brian, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. President. All right. And by the way, this is only on DC. And then they're going to leave because it's unfair to have them stand up here all day long. Brian.

I've got two questions for you, first, about DC. This is personal for me as well. Last year, I was robbed on the streets by one of these teenage thugs. Had a gun, got away with it. Let's talk about the effort that between law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges because it's recycling belt that these kids go. They don't fear the police. They know it. If you talk about how we've got to get these judges and put these kids behind bars-- You are right.

Adult crimes deserve adult penalties. And my second question-- after you answer that, please.

Do you want me to answer that?

Whoever wants to take it. OK, OK. It's real-- do you want me to answer it? Go ahead. [LAUGHTER] Here's the problem. Assuming that there's 17 years-- older than 17 years old, I can get the case. If they're under 18 years of age, I can only get the case if it's murder, rob 1, and rape, or even if they shoot a gun but don't kill you, I can't get it. So the law has to be changed. As the President said, cashless bail-- that has to be changed. All right, then, even assuming I get the case, I get jurisdiction, I get a conviction, the DC Council has given the judges the ability to give probation on shootings. And so then it's up to them. All of these things, the Youth Rehabilitation Incarceration Reduction Act, and now they want to seal records. So if we work hard, we get a conviction. They want to wipe it out. So that needs all to be changed.

OK, Mr. President. Pam, would you answer that also [INAUDIBLE]? [OVERLAPPING VOICES] Yeah, and just back to back to that topic, let's be clear, though, we're going to charge them and we're going to track every single thing they do throughout every step of the court process and report back to you and let all of you know what's happening to them. Because the people who are prosecuting them, the judges who are trying them, they also need to be held accountable.

Mr. President, you also made the comment-- you made the comment--

Mr. President.

This is the most people we've ever seen in this briefing-- I've never seen--

--ever, right?

Yes. I've never seen any. Where's Caroline? Where's my superstar? [OVERLAPPING VOICES] Caroline. Is Caroline in the back? [OVERLAPPING VOICES] Where's Caroline?

Mr. President. Come here, Caroline. [LAUGHTER] Come here, Caroline. [APPLAUSE] Come here. Is she doing a good job, by the way? Come here.

Yes! Is this-- is this the largest crowd we've-- that you've ever seen here? This is definitely the most packed briefing. And I think all of you would agree. I think it's why we need to build a ballroom.

Yes. [OVERLAPPING VOICES] I have a better idea. [OVERLAPPING VOICES] All right, Brian, go ahead.

My question is this. You're building the big, beautiful ballroom. Yeah.

Could we build a big, beautiful briefing room on this technology? No.

More seats. I don't want to do that.

No. I don't want you to be comfortable. [LAUGHTER] [OVERLAPPING VOICES] So no, I don't want to make-- I don't want to make life comfortable. [OVERLAPPING VOICES] So look, look, look, let's just do this. Let's do this. It's going to be a big thing. We're going to Russia. That's going to be a big deal. What happens, happens. I'll let you know what happens. You'll be the first to know. I'll be calling the European leaders I'm going with. Totally, we have a lot of talks. They're great people. They're great leaders, actually, and they want to get back, honestly. As one of them said, I've OD'd on trying to settle Ukraine. They've OD'd, meaning they've overdosed on the settlement of Ukraine. Not a nice expression, but boy, is it accurate. They're tired of it. They want to get back to spending money on their countries. They're in-- We're in for-- Biden gave them $350 billion. Europe gave 100 billion. It should be much more than that. It shouldn't have been that. They should have had equalization. But they didn't. But do you know what? It's still a lot of money. They want to get back to building their own countries. They really want it resolved. My relationship with the European leaders, as you saw, is extremely good. It's perfect. It's beautiful. Wait, wait, wait, wait. And we're going to try. I'll be in touch with them. I have five of them call me. And you think it's easy. There are a lot of European leaders, but they rely on me very much rely on me. If it wasn't for me, this thing would never get solved until the last person breathing is dead.

Would you talk to them before Mr. President?

Mr. President. No, I did. I'm talking to him right now. So I'm talking to the European leaders. I'll be talking to President Zelenskyy. I'm going to get everybody's ideas. I go into that thing fully loaded right up there, and we're going to see what happens. Now, I think one of two things is going to happen. It could be a good meeting, and we'll go a step further, and we'll get it done. I'd like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly, very quickly. I'd like to see it immediately, but I'd like to see it very quickly. And we're going to be dealing with the European leaders, and we're going to be dealing with President Zelenskyy. And hopefully, we're going to have a great success. As far as this, what we did today, and I think you were here for DC more so than even Russia, because Russia will be-- we have a couple of days to go, but the rush is going to be very interesting. But to me, what is very exciting, we're going to take back our capital. We're going to make it beautiful again, but we're going to make it, more importantly, safe again. It's going to be so safe. It's going to be a model. And then we'll look at other cities also. But other cities are studying what we're doing. And you have some capable people in other cities. They can do it, too. But we have a great group of professionals. We're going to have a safe, beautiful capital, and it's going to happen very quickly. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. [OVERLAPPING VOICES]

Madam Attorney General, the Justice Department-- You have been listening to President Donald Trump there taking a lot of questions on several topics. But the major reason for this news conference you see here is for the President to lay out his plans, how he plans to crack down on crime in Washington, DC, crime that he says is causing issues. And with that, I want to go live now to the White House and CBS News White House reporter Willie James Inman. Willie, thank you for joining us today. The numbers we know don't lie, but I really want to ask you about that entire news conference entirely on the issue of crime in Washington, DC. Can you give us a recap? What stood out to you from what the President, the attorney general, even Defense Secretary had to say? Hey there, Mugo. Well, this is really sparked after the assault of a former DOGE employee. The President teased a federal takeover of Washington, DC, said that he would be putting more law enforcement on the streets. And that is, in fact, what happened over the weekend. We saw more than 400 federal agents spread out across DC, on the streets of DC, making known their presence, essentially working to deter crime from happening. Now, what the President is doing here is invoking a specific part, specifically Section 747 of the Home Rule Act, that governs DC here in the District of Columbia. It is not a state, so the DC residents are able to vote for a mayor, a council, but with the caveat that Congress can work to approve or not approve of certain things. Of course, Congress works to approve funding for the District of Columbia as well. But the President, in invoking this emergency power, is essentially taking over control of the Metropolitan Police Department here in the District of Columbia. Now, there are certain rules that guard this act that the President is taking. He has to notify Congress, explain what he's doing in 48 hours. And the President sought to explain the reasoning behind this move during that press conference. Listen to what he said. The Democrat Congressman was also carjacked at gunpoint, not far from the Capitol. And in 2023, an aide to Senator Rand Paul was stabbed in the chest and head by a demented lunatic as he walked down the street, just absolutely for no reason. Horrifically, last July 4th weekend, a three-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed while sitting in a car near the capital. It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness, and we're getting rid of the slums, too. We have slums here. We're getting rid of them. Now, the President noted that the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, will essentially be at the helm here, guiding the Metropolitan Police Department. He has a time limit on that action that he's taking today, 30 days. He'll have to get a buy-in from Congress to further extend and control of the Police Department. But the President is also calling for the National Guard to help patrol the streets and keep DC safe. Certainly, there will be some pushback from local leaders, including Mayor Bowser. We await to see a statement from her. But the President is making this extraordinary step to essentially tamp down on what he says is a ramp-up of violent crime here in DC, even though, as you pointed out, Mugo, we have seen violent crime, in fact, come down 26% compared to last year. But we wait and see in terms of how the President will go about responding to that pushback. But for now, the White House is making this move, they say, to tamp down on that violent crime across the district. Mugo. Yeah. And Willie, we heard from Jeanine Pirro as well. She is now DC's top prosecutor. And she focused on young people. She mentioned how, if they commit a crime, there's not really much that she can do as long as they're under 18 years of age. And it seems this is an issue. I used to live in Chicago. It was an issue with teens there committing crimes and not much being done about it. Does this appear to be an issue in the DC area as well? Yeah, certainly is. It is something that I have personally witnessed, young teenagers stealing cars. This is something that has been a problem in the district. And local leaders, in fact, the Attorney General, the critics say essentially, that he is not being tough on crime and prosecuting those juveniles as adults. So this is something that local leaders will have to address, and certainly something that the White House is eyeing in terms of his push to fight that violent crime, Mugo. OK. CBS News White House reporter Willie James Inman, thank you so much for your time today. And now I want to bring in CBS News Justice Reporter Jake Rosen and CBS News Senior Coordinating Producer for the Crime and Public Safety unit, Anna Schechter. They've both been listening in to that news conference with President Donald Trump. Anna, I want to start with you because the President says the capital city has been taken over by violent gangs and criminals. Can you walk us through what you took there from the President's press conference? What stood out to you the most? Well, he really painted a picture, Mugo, of a dystopia. And we talked to people who live there. I think they don't characterize it that way. In fact, as Willie noted, violent crime is down year over year. And even Kash Patel, the head of the FBI, said as much. But certainly murder rates, carjackings, they are higher than a low back in 2012. They're coming down, approaching pre-pandemic levels. So we saw a huge spike in violent crime after the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly in DC in 2023. But we've seen a positive trend of those numbers coming down. So what he was describing is a little bit at odds with what the numbers show? But the experts that we talked to who track crime stats and the public's feeling and impressions of crime stats, they say that one specific incident, like the carjacking that Willie mentioned and even the DC intern who was shot and killed earlier this year, that can create a perception amongst the public that crime numbers are actually worse than they actually are, Mugo. Hmm. And I think it's also important to note here that, yes, the numbers can say one thing, but what people feel, that can be a completely different story as well, right? That's right. And Donald Trump is an expert at tapping into how people are feeling, particularly their fears. And certainly, when I talk to law enforcement around the country, including here where I am in New York City, they do complain about recidivism. So they talk about bail reform as something that has allowed criminals to get back out on the street after they commit crimes, and that that is inhibiting law enforcement. So Trump in his press conference today, he voiced a lot of those frustrations that I have heard from law enforcement. And so these are big policy issues. He presented it like he can railroad and make big changes. Some of the things that he's talking about are going to require Congress to act, and others to get on board. So a lot remains to be seen, but very strong rhetoric from that presser today. Yeah, and you talk about how this is still a long way from happening because it does need some approval. But what would a complete federal control over the Metropolitan Police Department-- what would that even look like? Well, it's a great question because it hasn't really been done in this way before. So as you mentioned, that would require an act of Congress to completely take over after a 48-hour period. But what Trump essentially was flicking was to tap into other federal law enforcement agencies draw from those. But he also talked about how there are about 3,000 police officers with the Metro PD. And his point was that's enough. You need to let those police officers do their job. So it's kind of murky. Does he want to actually allocate federal law enforcement to bolster the Metro PD, or just allow those police officers to-- roll back some restrictions on their ability to make arrests? But certainly, there's going to be a lot of debate, a lot of criticism coming from groups that advocate for violence interrupter programs and the like. But I think what he said is probably good news to law enforcement, local police around the country who feel like they want to make sure that when they make those arrests, that the people who are perpetrating those crimes don't come back to recommit those crimes. OK, CBS News senior coordinating producer for the Crime and Public Safety unit, Anna Schechter, thank you so much for your time today. Now let's turn to CBS News Justice reporter Jake Rosen. Jake, good to have you here on 24/7. What stood out the most to you during the President's news conference, as obviously you were listening in as well? What was your take from what he had to say? Well, I think if you take a step back and you think about DC in the last five or 10 years or so, it's certainly striking for President Trump to invoke these national emergencies when he did not do so here in the summer of 2020 after the civil rights riots that were going on and protests that were going on throughout the city. And we also didn't see this after January 6, 2021, which I think really is the big overhanging thing for people who have lived in DC for as long as at least I have, and a number of other people here who have. I went to college here and have lived here since then. And when you see that there was not this massive pushback against the crimes, against law enforcement that were done that day and you see the change in rhetoric between Defense Secretary Hegseth, President Trump, Attorney General Bondi, a number of other people saying, our law enforcement has to be ready and pointing to being spit at and that provokes a prompt police response. Well, we did not get that from President Trump. Obviously, the people who committed the violence that day were pardoned. And in addition to that, it's very difficult for these local leaders here in DC, and there's been a number of criticisms over the last couple of months of there just hasn't been the funding there for the department of police here in DC to hire officers. And that one big, beautiful bill that President Trump touted actually cuts funding, tens of millions of funding that could be used for public safety initiatives across the city and hiring police officers. OK, Jake, some very important things you pointed out there, cutting funding, and then also what can be seen as hypocrisy when it comes to how the President handled the Capitol riots versus crime in DC right now. But I need to ask, how is federal law enforcement supposed to patrol a US city that already has its own Police Department? Do they even have jurisdiction to do that? And how much of this can be resolved from what the mayor was talking about? I know she said, Hey, we need more judges. So can you talk to us about those points? Absolutely. So on the first point that you made, there are a certain number of things that these law enforcement officials can do. What the FBI can do is add in patrols around the city, scanning license plates, potentially stopping potential carjackings, although that day-to-day traffic work is not something that they are trained on, nor is it the same for National Guard troops who, if they are brought in under certain authorities, may or may not have arresting authorities to potentially act as police officers, or are there just simply protecting those DC Public parks. And where are these law enforcement officials being moved to is the big outstanding question here. Are they being moved to Capitol Hill, the National Mall, those parks, that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum referenced? Or are they being moved to the parts of the city that actually experience day-to-day high crime rates? That was not answered at all in this press conference. In addition to that, there is a shortage of DC Superior Court judges and laws that make it very difficult for law enforcement at the local level here in DC to actually go after think about people who are about 14 to 17 years old, as Judge Jeanine Pirro pointed out, where there are judges-- a judge openings, which means there's a backlog of cases, there are pretrial detention, moves where again people are let out on probation while they're awaiting conviction for gun crimes, potentially in the city. But also, at the same time, it's very difficult for the federal government to get involved like they want to. And even Judge Jeanine Pirro made clear last week before this all took place, that she wants to have rules changed at the local level here in DC that would allow the federal government to go in and on not just serious crimes like murder, but robbery, carjacking and other things that would allow the federal government to prosecute those crimes here. All of the big, violent crime here in DC is actually prosecuted at the federal level. But there is that carve out for minors that they hope to end. Certainly, that is-- that also did not happen today, is not going to happen tomorrow. And certainly these longer-term projects that, again, will require local, congressional, and federal approval. Yeah, sounds like something you can't just snap your fingers and make happen. CBS News Justice reporter, Jake Rosen, thank you so much for your time today. And now I want to bring in CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe. Ed, you were in that room during the President's news conference. And what did the President have to say? Can you talk to us about the DC home rule? What's that about? So that is the law that, in essence, allows him to take action the way he has. You may be watching anywhere else, but the Washington, DC, area, and wonder how on Earth can he do this? There is federal law that allows the President to federalize elements of the District of Columbia, given that it is in a state, and Section 40 of that law, in essence, allows him to declare some kind of an emergency. And as long as he puts it in writing to the mayor and to congressional leadership within 48 hours, that federal oversight can continue for about 30 days. At that point, he's got to go to Congress, essentially, and ask them to help extend it or set the parameters of further control. So we may be looking at something that only lasts about a month. If the Republican-controlled Congress, in the midst of a fight over keeping the lights on across the federal government in one month, wants to also have a conversation about this, then there will be a debate about federal control of Washington, DC, as well. But what may happen here will, Mugo, is similar to what we saw in Los Angeles, a federal deployment, a lot of attention on it from the White House and the press in the early days, and then it peters out. And to Jake's point, a lot of where the crime or the blight that the President is concerned about happens is on the parts of this city that are federally controlled, the National Mall, some of the key parks, or traffic circle monuments that visitors and locals certainly are aware of. And so a lot of this can be solved with more federal money being spent to clean up and protect those parts of the city that the Washington, DC Police Department doesn't oversee. I've got to tell you, Mugo, there are more than three dozen police agencies that operate in and around Washington, DC. A young college student who had come to Washington, DC, did his Justice class term paper on this and learned there were at least 35 federal police agencies at the time. And that was just at the birth of the 9/11 movement, when there were so many more coming on. So you're looking at something like 40 different law enforcement agencies that in one way or another, touch Washington, DC buildings or agencies inside of it. And what he's done in recent days is take most of those federal agencies and round up a few of their members and get them out there patrolling with Washington, DC police. This is a city that is seeing double-digit decreases in some elements of its violent crime, yes, not necessarily to pre-COVID levels. Big concern about carjacking, for example, in this town, more of those going on since the pandemic than before the pandemic. A lot of these that are committing the crimes, especially this time of year when school isn't in session, are juveniles, somewhere between the ages of 12 and 18. And you heard the US attorney Jeanine Pirro, talking about how I don't have a way of prosecuting those younger people. That is true. She can handle adult crime, but the juvenile crime is handled by the DC attorney general, who has been quoted in some news outlets since this press conference saying that what has occurred here appears to be unlawful in the District of Columbia, is considering its legal options. But the reality is that law allows the President to declare some kind of a federal emergency, and then the clock starts. And in about 30 days, there's going to have to be a conversation with Congress about whether this should continue or will the White House, the Defense Department, and everybody else walk away and said, we did what we wanted to do. Yeah, we'll wait and see what happens after those 30 days and whether or not any change will actually be seen in that short amount of time. Ed O'Keefe of the White House for us today. Thank you so much for your time. And now to CBS News Pentagon reporter and producer Ellee Watson. Ellee, thank you for joining us. The President is sending troops to the streets of DC, but the question is, what would that deployment actually look like? And we learned in that press conference that President Trump has activated about 800 members of the DC National Guard to help local law enforcement with cracking down on crime in DC. DC National Guard is unique because there's no governor. The President has the authority over the Guard, not the mayor. He used that authority, invoked it this morning as part of this sweeping federal crackdown on crime. As other guests have mentioned, there have been very scary incidents in DC, but crime, violent crime, especially has been decreasing. And that decrease has happened without deploying the National Guard. And I have to ask, when was the last time the National Guard was deployed to DC? And are they trained for what they would be taking on in the DC area? DC National Guard was last deployed throughout DC in response to the 2020 protests after the killing of George Floyd. The DC Guard was also called to respond after local law enforcement was overwhelmed during the assault on the Capitol on January 6. DC Guard has also helped provide security for events around DC, like the inauguration and the Army birthday parade earlier this summer. But the last time in the streets of DC was back in 2020. The Guard is trained with security and with crowd control tactics, but traditionally is not used as local law enforcement. This administration, especially, has been calling on the National Guard across the country to step into places that previous administrations have historically left up to domestic law enforcement. And Ellee, I also want to take this opportunity to ask you about what the President had to say about his meeting with President Putin. Anything stand out to you there? A few things did. The way President Trump talked about it, he is essentially trying to feel out what President Putin wants. President Trump again mentioned that there may be some swapping of territories, which is confusing because Russia invaded Ukraine. There isn't a lot that Ukraine wants to, or even has, to swap with Russia. And so there are European leaders, as well as President Zelenskyy, who are worried about what kind of conversations about territory will be had without President Zelenskyy at the table. Yeah, that's a big part to remember as well, is that Ukraine did not start this war. But when it comes to this meeting with the President and with President Putin, President Zelenskyy will not be on the table. All right, CBS News Pentagon reporter and producer Ellee Watson, thank you so much for your time today.