President Donald J. Trump reportedly said Tuesday he would push for the death penalty in cases of murder in Washington, D.C., arguing that decisive punishment is the only way to restore order to a city gripped by rising violence.
“Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment, capital capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital — Washington, D.C. — we’re going to be seeking the death penalty and that’s a very strong preventative,” Mr. Trump told his Cabinet. He added, “And, everybody that’s heard it agrees with it. I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country. But … we have no choice. So, in D.C., in Washington — states are going to have to make their own decision — but if somebody kills somebody, like you could have been killed, very lucky you didn’t get killed, it’s the death penalty.”
The president’s remarks came in response to a story shared by Iris Tao, a journalist with The Epoch Times, who described being assaulted in the capital.
Mr. Trump used her experience as evidence of what he sees as a lawlessness problem in the city, one that demands extraordinary measures.
The District of Columbia has not permitted the death penalty for decades. The Supreme Court struck down the practice there in 1972, and the D.C. Council formally repealed it in 1981.
But Mr. Trump, who made reinstating capital punishment a central theme of his 2024 campaign, said the federal government has a duty to act when local leaders fail.
His proposal is the latest escalation in a sweeping federal crackdown on crime in Washington that began Aug. 7, when Mr. Trump ordered additional law enforcement into the city and followed up days later by deploying the National Guard.
The White House said Tuesday that more than 1,094 arrests have been made since the initiative began.
Authorities reported eight gang members arrested, including affiliates of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua; 115 firearms seized; two missing children rescued; and 49 homeless encampments cleared.
Administration officials also touted a rare lull in killings: police data showed no homicides for 12 straight days, until Tuesday morning, when a man in Southeast Washington was found “unconscious and breathing, suffering from a gunshot wound,” according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
For Mr. Trump and his supporters, the results demonstrate the effectiveness of a law-and-order strategy that critics in local government have long resisted.
The president has argued that lenient policies and the absence of serious penalties have emboldened criminals and endangered ordinary residents. “We have no choice,” he said of the need for capital punishment.
The proposal also highlights a clash between federal power and the District’s leadership, which has rejected capital punishment for over 40 years.
But Mr. Trump has signaled that, at least for crimes in the capital itself, the federal government can set a higher standard.
On the campaign trail last year, Mr. Trump called for expanding the death penalty beyond murder, suggesting it should apply to drug traffickers as well. His latest comments in the White House reflected the same conviction: that punishment, to be effective, must be severe enough to deter.
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