WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump pledged on Sunday to evict homeless people from the nation’s capital and jail criminals, despite Washington’s mayor arguing there is no current spike in crime.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. Were going to put you in jail where you belong,” Trump posted on the Truth Social platform.

The White House declined to explain what legal authority Trump would use to evict people from Washington. The Republican president controls only federal land and buildings in the city. Trump is planning to hold a press conference on Monday to “stop violent crime in Washington, DC.” It was not clear whether he would announce more details about his eviction plan then.

Trump’s Truth Social post included pictures of tents and DC streets with some garbage on them. “I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before,” he said.

According to the Community Partnership, an organisation working to reduce homelessness in DC, on any given night there are 3,782 single persons experiencing homelessness in the city of about 700,000 people.

Most of the homeless individuals are in emergency shelters or transitional housing. About 800 are considered unsheltered or “on the street,” the organisation says.

A White House official said on Friday that more federal law enforcement officers were being deployed in the city following a violent attack on a young Trump administration staffer that angered the president.

The Democratic mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, said on Sunday the capital was “not experiencing a crime spike.”

“It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023,” Bowser said on MSNBCs The Weekend.

“We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.”

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2025