Washington, D.C., is the bluest area in the country, with President-elect Donald Trump winning just single digits in his best election results yet. Now, city officials fear that Republicans will turn their ire on the city, cutting down on its autonomy and changing its laws.

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“I think there’s reason to be concerned,” Independent D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson told The 51st. “I think in this entire election they wrote down exactly what they are going to do. The question is whether they execute it for D.C.”

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While Trump did little with Washington D.C. during his first term, the city has drawn his ire since leaving office. Residents saw a stark rise in crime after the pandemic, more so than other urban areas around the country, though it’s now trending downward. That, and the council’s overhaul of the criminal code in 2022, is playing into Trump’s vision that crime in the city is out of control.

“I am calling for a federal takeover of this filthy and crime-ridden embarrassment to our nation,” he said during his campaign.

‘Federalizing’ the district

In a Jan. 27 Las Vegas rally, the then-presidential candidate elaborated on his plans to “take over our horribly run capital” and renovate it to ensure “it’s no longer a nightmare of murder and crime.”

“We’re going to federalize it. We’re gonna have the toughest law enforcement in the country. We’re not going to have any more crime and it’s going to look beautiful,” he said.

One of the more drastic moves he’s floated, deploying the National Guard to Washington D.C. to enforce the law, would face few barriers as the district doesn’t have the power to push back that a state has. The National Guard was previously deployed for five months in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, setting a precedent. At its peak, the occupation included 25,000 troops.

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Deploying the National Guard to fight crime even has some history of backing from the Left — in 2022 the Randallstown chapter of the NAACP urged then-Gov. Larry Hogan to deploy the National Guard to Baltimore to quell rising gun violence. Hogan ultimately decided against it.

More recently, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) deployed 750 National Guard officers in March to combat crime in the New York City subway.

The deployment would also likely be met with widespread support in the Republican-led Congress.

Threats to DC’s Home Rule

The 1973 Home Rule Act granted Washington D.C. the right to govern its own affairs — with some catches. All legislation must be approved by Congress.

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While this usually serves as a formality, Washington D.C.’s self-governance gained national attention at the beginning of 2023 after the city council passed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill. The bill lessened the mandatory penalties for some crimes, such as carjackings and burglary, and expanded who was eligible to have their sentences lessened as well as expanded access to jury trials to address capacity issues in the courts. Many national politicians painted the bill as soft on crime.

The House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to overturn the bill, with the Senate voting 81-14 in favor of overturning it. Fourteen Democrats voted with Republicans to back the measure. President Joe Biden signaled his tacit support of the bill to overturn the crime bill.

The episode brought the conundrum of Washington D.C. home rule to the forefront of the Republican agenda, an agenda they could carry out after taking the government trifecta in January.

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Trump has hinted at doing away with home rule altogether. Last December, he said that the city “has become a dirty, crime-ridden death trap that must be taken over and properly run by the federal government.”

Though Trump hasn’t provided any specifics, other Republicans have. Last year, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced a bill to repeal Home Rule. The bill would have repealed the Home Rule Act altogether, with Ogles citing Washington D.C.’s rising crime rate as a reason to retake its “constitutional authority.” Sen. Mike Lee introduced a similar bill, which was co-sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Rick Scott (R-FL).

The Republican 2024 platform didn’t go as far as repealing home rule but outlined an increase in federal control. 

“Republicans will reassert greater Federal Control over Washington, DC to restore Law and Order in our Capital City, and ensure Federal Buildings and Monuments are well-maintained,” the platform stated.

Bracing for all possibilities

While Republicans appear to want to re-establish federal control over Washington D.C., few direct policies have been publicly stated. The main overriding theme is the prioritization of law and order, though usually not providing specifics.

Axios’ Cuneyt Dil, speaking with City Cast DC, predicted that Republicans would be haphazard in their approach to Washington D.C. The House will take the lead on intervening in the affairs of the city.

“It’s going to be very random what House Republicans will go after, and it will cause a nightmare for city leadership because they don’t know how to legislate if they’re getting knocked down by Congress,” Dil said.

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Some specific Washington D.C. laws Republicans may target are D.C. traffic laws, speed traffic cameras, gas stove bans, cannabis regulations, non-citizen voting, and environmental policies. He suggested that ranked-choice voting could be banned as well.

“I think anything is open,” Dil said, citing his conversations with sources familiar with the matter.

“If they control both chambers, you can expect a Hell of a lot more intervening in D.C.,” he added.

When concerns over abortion were raised, Dil said he hadn’t heard anything about it, but that it wasn’t off the table.

Decades ago, Congress banned the use of local taxpayer funds to pay for abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment. Congressional lawmakers have also for years targeted the district’s 2014 Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act, though they’ve been unsuccessful in attaching the legislation to government funding bills.