‘We’re going to be asking for extensions,’ Trump says of 30-day limit on DC police takeover
The president confirms that he is looking to extend the initial 30-day limit for the federal takeover of the DC metropolitan police.
“I don’t want to call national emergency. If I have to I will. But I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously,” Trump says, referring to the joint resolution in Congress needed to authorize an extension (beyond the 30-days guaranteed by Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act).
Trump also says that any idea about DC statehood is “ridiculous” and simply states that it’s “not going to happen”, when answering a reporter’s question.
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Updated at 14.12 EDT
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We can soon expect to hear from Texas Democrats in Chicago, who will join several Indiana Democrats who are pushing back against the president’s pressure campaign to redraw their own state’s congressional map.
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Updated at 14.16 EDT
White House says dozens arrested in DC as mayor warns of ‘authoritarian push’
Chris Stein
The White House said on Wednesday that law enforcement made dozens of arrests in Washington DC overnight after federal agents and national guard troops fanned out across the city as part of Donald Trump’s campaign to quell a “crime crisis” that local officials say does not exist.
The national guard arrived on the National Mall late on Tuesday, while agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), FBI and Department of Homeland Security were seen in several neighborhoods , sometimes accompanied by local police officers.
Video circulating on local media showed police and federal agents arresting at least one person that evening in Columbia Heights, home to the city’s largest Hispanic population. Other videos showed traffic stops near Kennedy street in Northwest Washington, which in years past has been the site of gang activity.
A White House official said to expect a “significantly higher” presence of national guard troops over the days to come, as well as round-the-clock patrols by federal agents, which have thus far only been present in the evenings. The administration argues the steps are necessary to fight what Trump has called an “out of control” crime problem in the nation’s capital, but local officials have disputed that characterization.
Data shows that crime rates plunged last year to the lowest levels in three decades, though the capital does have higher rates of some violent crimes compared with cities with similar populations.
Democratic lawmakers have condemned Trump’s incursion as an authoritarian move intended to distract his supporters from outrage over his refusal to make public files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a one-time friend who has become a fixation of conspiracy theorists.
The Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, has sought a cordial relationship with Trump since his return to the White House, but changed her tone on Tuesday, urging residents and voters during a social media event “to protect our city, to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule and get to the other side of this guy and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push”.
A White House official said a total of 43 arrests were made on Tuesday night, twice the total of the previous evening. More than 1,450 officers participated, about half of which were from the city’s police department, while only 30 national guard troops were deployed of the roughly 800 that defense officials have said are expected to arrive for the mission.
The White House said a total of 19 teams of officers from various federal agencies are in the city “to promote public safety and arrest violent offenders”, while the national guard will “protect federal assets, provide a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests, and deter violent crime with a visible law enforcement presence”.
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Updated at 13.47 EDT
Ice conducting immigration enforcement operations with police and other federal agencies in DC – report
More than 40 Ice agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI, which does long-term investigations into transnational crimes) are working with the DC police, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies this week as part of Trump’s takeover of the capital to mitigate crime, NBC News is reporting.
Per NBC’s report, “they can make arrests of citizens with no nexus to immigration violations”. “Yesterday, HSI worked with other agencies in an operation near the DC Metro in Union Station; its agents told NBC News that they were not there for anything immigration related, but were surveying busy areas around DC.”
Separately, Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO, which carries out operations like arresting immigrants for immigration crimes and detaining and deporting them) is increasing its operations in DC, according to NBC. The news outlet reports that “there was a ‘targeted enforcement operation’ to arrest immigrants in a Home Depot parking lot in DC yesterday, and there have been reports of other immigrant arrests in the DC area.”
“The President was clear, he will make DC safe and beautiful again, and ICE is proud to be a part of the solution alongside our federal law enforcement partners,” an agency spokesperson told NBC about the operations. The agency is conducting both immigration enforcement operations and undertaking efforts to fight crime in support of the US Marshals Service, they said.
They said the operations were intelligence-based, and the efforts at Union Station and the Home Depot resulted in arrests of criminal undocumented immigrants convicted of assault, theft and gang activity.
“We will support the re-establishment of law and order and public safety in DC, which includes taking drug dealers, gang members, and criminal aliens off city streets,” they said.
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Updated at 13.21 EDT
Trump defense official led thinktank that spread lies about Tren de Aragua
José Olivares
A senior official appointed to the defense department led a thinktank that promoted fake news about the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, according to InSight Crime, a non-profit analyzing organized crime.
Joseph Humire was appointed this summer to be the head of policy focusing on the western hemisphere within the office of the under secretary of defense for policy. He was previously the executive director of a conservative thinktank focused on global security. Humire’s appointment comes as the Trump administration is ramping up its aggressive strategy against organized crime in Latin America and the Venezuelan government, which it accuses of working with TdA.
Under Humire’s leadership, the Center for a Secure Free Society thinktank published the “TdA Activity Monitor”, tracking alleged crimes by accused members of the gang throughout the US. According to InSight Crime, at least five event entries in the tracker appeared to have been “completely fabricated”. InSight Crime found zero basis for the false entries, with local police departments telling researchers the purported crimes were nonexistent. InSight Crime analyzed more than 90 of the entries, finding many relied on unverified sources.
“Some incidents are included multiple times, inflating the gang’s perceived presence and activities,” researchers found.
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Updated at 13.07 EDT
Trump says he can’t convince Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine
Jakub Krupa
Asked if he was confident he could get Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine, Trump said:
Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ve had that conversation with him. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home, or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the street.
So I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation.
He ended his briefing there.
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Updated at 12.48 EDT
Trump is now continuing his tirade against Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
“He’s truly incompetent,” Trump says. He then goes on to confirm that he’ll be naming his nomination for Powell’s replacement “sometime in the next week”. A reminder that Powell’s term ends in May.
I‘m down to three or four names. All good, all great. The problem is you name them and then they turn out to be not good. That’s happened to me a couple of times. You name somebody, they tell you everything you want to hear, and then they go in and they turn out to be not good.
Trump also describes why he has threatened to sue Powell over his renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters.
They built a basement under the building. It didn’t have a basement. This is simple to understand. The building is right next to a thing called the Potomac River… And you don’t build a built basement under a building that is two feet above the river, that’s right next door.
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Updated at 12.36 EDT
Trump promises ‘very severe consequences’ if Putin doesn’t agree to ceasefire in Friday meeting
The president kept it short and blunt when asked about the consequences Russia could face if Putin does not agree to stop the war at their meeting with Trump on Friday in Alaska.
“There will be very severe consequences,” he said. Trump didn’t elaborate on what those penalties will be.
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Updated at 12.32 EDT
Trump says upcoming meeting with Putin as ‘setting the table’ for three-leader summit
Taking questions on his meeting on Friday with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the president says that if this week’s meeting goes well he would like a second meeting “almost immediately” with both Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Although Trump adds that is only if the leaders would “like to have me there”.
But when it comes to that possible trilateral summit, Trump doesn’t say it’s a guarantee. “If I feel that it’s not appropriate to have it because I didn’t get the answers that we have to have, then we’re not going to have a second meeting,” Trump adds.
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Updated at 14.13 EDT
‘We’re going to be asking for extensions,’ Trump says of 30-day limit on DC police takeover
The president confirms that he is looking to extend the initial 30-day limit for the federal takeover of the DC metropolitan police.
“I don’t want to call national emergency. If I have to I will. But I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously,” Trump says, referring to the joint resolution in Congress needed to authorize an extension (beyond the 30-days guaranteed by Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act).
Trump also says that any idea about DC statehood is “ridiculous” and simply states that it’s “not going to happen”, when answering a reporter’s question.
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Updated at 14.12 EDT
The president is taking questions from the press now, and confirms he’s heard about recent reports that Russia is “at least in part” responsible for a recent hack of the computer system of the federal court system.
“Are you surprised?” Trump tells the reporter. “They hack in. That’s what they do. They’re good at it. We’re good at it. We’re actually better at it.”
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Updated at 14.12 EDT
Overall the president is using the Kennedy Center as part of his ongoing “beautification” ambitions for DC.
“I’m determined to make Washington, DC safe, clean and beautiful,” Trump says. “A big part of that’s going to include the Kennedy Center”.
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Trump is switching between talking about his plans for a Kennedy Center renovation and the “public safety emergency” he’s declared in the nation’s capital.
“People tell me they can’t run anymore. They’re just afraid, and they’ll be running again,” he says. “We’re going to be essentially crime free. This is going to be a beacon, and it’s going to also serve as an example of what can be done”.
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Updated at 14.11 EDT
Trump now praises attorney general Pam Bondi – as she now oversees the DC police department as part of the federal takeover.
You’re going to see a big change in Washington crime stats very soon. They’re not the stats that they gave because they turned out to be a total fraud. The real stats.
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Trump will host Kennedy Center Honors
The president has said he will host the Kennedy Center Honors, at the insistence of his chief of staff Susie Wiles. It will take place in December.
The president also announces Sylvester Stallone, the Rocky and Rambo star who is the president’s newly minted “Ambassador to Hollywood”, is one of this year’s honorees.
“Sly is a pillar of the really American pop culture and a Hollywood superstar like few others,” the president said. “One of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In fact, the only one that’s a bigger name of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they say, is a guy named Donald Trump”.
Stallone has routinely praised Trump, even calling him a “second George Washington”.
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Updated at 14.11 EDT
Joining the president today is Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
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Updated at 11.57 EDT
