Trump to ask Congress for $2 billion to fix 'hellhole' DC

John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call on Aug 22, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

President Donald Trump on Friday said he would ask Congress for billions in taxpayer dollars for his effort to clean up the District of Columbia and make it safer, arguing the capital city was a “hellhole” before he took over its policing.

“Look, D.C. is a miracle,” he told reporters Friday during a stop at a new White House Historical Association museum about the White House. “You live here. Have you been mugged? Okay, D.C. was a hellhole, and now it’s safe.”

Trump revealed a coming $2 billion request of lawmakers for the district, which could be a tough sell among fiscally conservative, far-right GOP House members. He also called on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, to step up her efforts to make her city more attractive and safe.

“Now it’s going to be clean. I’m giving out a contract very soon. … We’re going to be raising about $2 billion from Congress. Congress is happy to do it,” Trump said, though that remains to be seen. “And we’re going to wisely spend the money we’re doing with Clark Construction.”

A real estate executive in New York and golf course owner most of his adult life, Trump also announced the scope of his envisioned Washington makeover.

“We’re going to head out right from the Capitol in the White House, and if you look at a circle and go about three miles out,” he said, adding: “It’s going to be beautiful.

“I hate to say this, because it doesn’t sound very good, but there have been no murders in D.C. in the last week. That’s the first time in anybody’s memory that you haven’t had a murder in a week,” said Trump, wearing a bright red cap with white letters that read, “Trump was right about everything.”

His recent moves and comments show he believes he has been right for a decade in describing the Bowser-led District as too dirty, too unsafe and too poorly governed.

“And I think the mayor has to get on the ball, because we have a situation — and she’s a nice woman, but I’ll tell you what she’s got to get on the ball. We have, I don’t want to see phony numbers,” Trump said of what his administration contends has been the district government’s questionable crime data.

“And, then, we put some strength, some strength into it, got the numbers down a little bit, but we brought in the D.C. National Guard, and we coupled them with the police,” he said, omitting federal immigration and other agents he has deployed across the district. “And it has been amazing.”

Many D.C. residents disagree, with protests popping up across the city — and some residents even confronting and shouting down teams of Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers and federal agents patrolling on foot in their neighborhoods.

“Free D.C.” has been a frequent chant and slogan on homemade signs.

In addition to the coming $2 billion funding request, Trump over the last week also has called on lawmakers to repeal D.C.’s 1973 Home Rule Act and end policies like so-called “cashless bail” as part of what he has described as a “D.C. crime bill.”

_____