President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is considering a possible takeover of public safety in D.C., potentially installing—with congressional approval—some type of federally appointed czar over law enforcement in the nation’s capital, according to two sources.

The sources emphasized no firm decisions have been made. “A lot of things are being considered,” said one involved source familiar with the presidential transition team’s discussions at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. 

Two separate sources suggested that a U.S. deputy attorney general or similar official could possibly be appointed to directly oversee the District’s police force, fire and emergency services, the 911 call center, and possibly even juvenile justice work that is now done by the locally elected Attorney General Brian Schwalb. D.C. Republican Party chair Patrick Mara previously speculated about the potential for federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Such a takeover of public safety would be a more targeted action than what happened in the late 1990s, when Congress created the federal Financial Control Board to run the entire District government, which at the time was nearly bankrupt.

Several District officials and business leaders are discouraging any public discussion of what Trump might do, fearing it might “poke the bear” and make matters worse with the incoming president. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

The potential intrusion into local governing could come even though Bowser and the D.C. Council are making a determined public effort in the halls of Congress and elsewhere to highlight sharp drops in violent crime this year compared to recent years. 

At a year-end briefing on crime in early December, Bowser revealed she had personally spoken with transition officials. “Yes, I’ve talked to them about public safety … and I specifically talked about … how we have been very focused on driving down crime,” she said.

The D.C. Council also recently has pulled back from several of its more progressive crime policies—toughening pretrial detention and expanding DNA testing of suspects charged with crimes, and creating aggressive policing in targeted “drug free zones,” which officials have credited with reduced crime in hot spots around the District.

The Council also has eased restrictions on police officers’ ability to physically detain suspects while maintaining a ban on “chokeholds” in place since 1982. Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the Council’s public safety committee, wrote in her year-end report that “the District is ending the year with the lowest amount of violent crime we have seen in over 20 years. The ongoing work to keep DC residents and visitors safe continues.”

And the Council recently voted to expel Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White, who is facing criminal bribery charges in federal court. Ahead of the vote, councilmembers spoke publicly about the importance of upholding the body’s ethics. Some members also privately worry that their failure to take strong action would invite interference from Congress during this heightened moment for the city. White was re-elected in November and is set to be sworn in Jan. 2. The Council is expected to take a final vote to expel him in February.

At minimum, Trump is expected to nominate a new and more aggressive U.S. Attorney for the District to replace Matthew Graves, who was chosen by President Joe Biden in 2021. Graves has served three years as the District’s chief prosecutor amid criticism that his prosecutions haven’t matched the level of crime in the District.

Short of a full takeover of public safety, Trump’s transition team is considering revising or rescinding some of the District’s most progressive criminal justice laws. The Republican-controlled Congress could direct Bowser and the Council to hire more police and public safety workers.

The Metropolitan Police Department has about 600 fewer officers than in previous years. Bowser has pressed the 13-member Council to do more to help bring the force to about 4,000 officers. But a recent audit by D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson concluded better deployment of the current force and hiring more civilian staff would be more effective than hiring more sworn officers. 

The still-private transition discussions belie the hopes of some local leaders that Trump would be too busy with national and international issues to focus on local D.C. “He’s going to do something,” the source familiar with Mar-a-Lago discussions says about the District. Trump has made criticism of crime in the District a constant theme for many years, irrespective of whether crime rates are up or down.

At a July rally at his Doral golf club in Florida, Trump declared: “We will take over the horribly run capital of our nation in Washington, D.C. and clean it up, renovate it, and rebuild our capital city so that it is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime, but rather it will become the most beautiful capital anywhere in the world.”

In August at a campaign stop in York, Pennsylvania, Trump vowed to make the District “safe” again. “You want to be able to go there and you want to be able to enjoy it, and you don’t want to be mugged or shot or killed in our capital, which has become very unsafe,” Trump said. “It’s horribly run, graffiti stained, and we’re going to fix it very quickly and beautifully.”

District officials gamely dispute Trump’s filth and crime-ridden declarations. And they note that he generally has trashed urban areas from New York to San Francisco with their more liberal and Black and brown populations. But only in the nation’s capital does federal law give Trump and Congress the upper hand to interfere with or override District laws and operations.

The District’s limited Home Rule Act, passed by Congress in 1973, includes a provision that allows any president to take over the District’s police department for 48 hours by declaring an emergency, and longer if Congress approves.

Local officials say they believe that the next Congress, with Republicans in control of both chambers, would likely support Trump if he made such a move. Trump also is empowered to call out the District’s National Guard to patrol streets even though the policing powers of the Guard are limited. 

The Constitution empowered Congress to establish a federal capital district where it would “exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever.” Even lawyers for the District recognize the broad power of that provision as long as Congress’ actions do not violate human rights or other federal laws. “We have no real cards to play,” says one District official.

Walter Smith, a respected local lawyer and a former D.C. deputy attorney general who supports statehood for the District, contended in the Washington Post in November that the Constitution’s “exclusive legislation” provision does not mean Congress has wholesale power to simply “take over” the government. Others dispute that view and note the continuing enmity with which some members of Congress attack the District. 

In July, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah introduced a bill that would abolish the District’s entire Home Rule government. Lee pointedly named the bill the “Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Act,” or the “BOWSER Act.” 

Some District officials have pointed out that Bowser has developed a good working relationship with Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability oversees the District. Comer has praised Bowser’s focus on public safety and other issues and was a key player in the District’s recent win in Congress to get control of the federal RFK Stadium land—a positive sign for the District. 

But given the drumbeat of Trump’s outrage over crime, local leaders privately say it’s still more likely that the Trump transition will take action against local D.C. rather than decide to do nothing.

Tom Sherwood is a contributing writer for City Paper and the resident political analyst for WAMU’s Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi.

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It was last July when the District Department of Transportation announced that it was the end of the road for the D.C. Circulator. Tuesday, Dec. 31 will be the bus service’s last stop.

The District Department of Transportation has worked with other transit partners — including Metrobus, Metrorail and Capital Bikeshare — to ensure riders have options.

What about the options for the bus drivers? WTOP spoke to some of them at Union Station, who have worked for the D.C. Circulator for close to two decades.

Jerry Benjamin has 30 years as a bus driver under his belt. Before he spent 17 years working for the Circulator, he drove for Greyhound.

“I love to drive. I think I was born to drive,” said Benjamin.

Benjamin told WTOP that he loved meeting people from all walks of life.

While losing a job is always tough, it’s not the hardest thing his family has been dealing with.

“My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she just had both her breasts removed. So I’m going through a lot,” Benjamin said. “I’m just trying to maintain and trying to get in front of my bills.”

At 61, Benjamin laughed as he sat in the driver’s seat talking about how hard it is to start from the bottom at a new job.

One of the skills Benjamin said he has may help him at his possible new job as a school bus driver for Prince George’s County.

“I know how to diffuse situations. It’s like, if a passenger is having a bad day, and gets on here and I talk to him or something like that, by the time I finish with them, they’re like, ‘All right, thank you. Have a good day,’” Benjamin said.

Another driver that has spent 15 years driving for the Circulator is 66-year-old John Hawkins.

“It’s been a great job,” Hawkins said. “So this has been a blessing to me.”

Hawkins told WTOP he has no plans for the next two months career-wise other than taking a couple of classes in security.

“I’m going to rest and relax in between the classes,” laughed Hawkins.

According to Hawkins, most of his coworkers have transitioned to Metro, Dash, The Ride On and Prince George’s County Public Schools.

When asked what he will miss most about driving for the D.C. Circulator, Hawkins smiled and replied: “My passengers, believe it or not. The quietness of the Circulator.”

“We get them there safely and have a good time.”

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They don’t like the trash talk.

Washington DC’s District Department of Transportation denounced a transit ad that was spotted near the Capitol that likened MAGA hat wearers to garbage.

“Keep DC trash free,” reads the incendiary ad spotted by Capitol Hill Baptist Church pastor Caleb Morell.

The ad featured a red circle with a line through it over an image of a MAGA hat wearer holding a book labeled “Project 2025.”

The bottom of the ad includes the logo for the District of Columbia Department of Public Works and the Mayor’s Office of the Clean City program.

DDOT DC quickly denied any role in the creation of the politically charged ad.

“This image was not created, funded, or authorized by the DC government, and our teams are currently working to remove them,” DDOT DC wrote on X in response to Morell’s post.

“If you see additional images like this, we encourage you to report them to 311.”

When asked for comment, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office referred The Post to DDOT DC’s response.

It is unclear who was behind the advert, but it wasn’t the first time a US city was plagued by dubious political ads

In the fall, for example, the artist known as @winstontseng on Instagram fessed up to being behind art falsely showing the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

He claimed that he wasn’t aware how the fugazi ads depicting Harris in team attire got displayed near bus stops in the City of Brotherly Love.

During the 2024 election homestretch, President Biden stoked major backlash for appearing to call supporters of President-elect Donald Trump garbage.

”The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American,” Biden said during a webcast with advocacy group Voto Latino in October.

Biden’s remarks came in response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s quip that US territory was a “floating island of garbage” during his opener at Trump’s blockbuster Madison Square Garden rally.

The White House quickly scrambled to clean up Biden’s remarks and dubiously tried to argue that Biden said “supporter’s” with an apostrophe, despite video showing Biden punctuating his remark.

That attempted cleanup gambit drew grief from the White House stenographer, which oversees transcripts.

Biden’s team contended that the president intended to reference the “hateful” rhetoric from Hinchcliffe rather than Trump supporters writ large.

Trump later took a photo of himself clad in an orange vest and getting into a garbage truck as a jab at Biden.