How Trump could try to seize control of Washington, D.C.

The president-elect has promised to "take over the horribly run capitol"

Since the November 5 election, Team Trump has made clear its plans to reshape the federal government by eliminating checks and balances and consolidating power in one person. This is not an easy task, however. At the very least, it will take months to achieve, with myriad roadblocks—including inevitable incompetence by Trump’s picks to run the federal government.

But because Washington, D.C. is beholden to the federal government in ways that the states are not, it could provide a sort of test case for a more sweeping takeover of the nation.

Consider that while Trump was campaigning, he vowed to “take over the horribly run capitol of our nation in Washington, D.C., and clean it up, renovate it and rebuild our capitol city so there is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime.” He also made threats to “take it [DC] away from the mayor.”

Article I of the Constitution gives Congress “exclusive Legislation [over D.C.] in all Cases whatsoever.” The District of Columbia is a federal entity governed by a mayor and city council, but the federal statute granting self-governance allows the president to take control of the 4,000-member police force in certain emergency situations.

Under the Home Rule Act, the president would have to determine that “special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for federal purposes.” The takeover may last up to 48 hours and may be extended with the approval of Congress.

Washington, D.C., didn’t even secure what’s known as "home rule”—or the ability to govern itself—until 1973. The Home Rule Act of 1973 could also be repealed anytime, reverting control of D.C. entirely to Congress or whatever other body it decides should rule the nation’s capital. With his supplicant Congress, Trump could also make major changes to public education and severely restrict abortion access without having to go through the “red tape” that state sovereignty entails.

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Eugene Kinlow, a “veteran D.C. politician” who worked as the mayor’s director of federal and regional affairs, told the Washingtonian that “Washington, DC will be under assault in a way that we haven’t seen in a very long time.”

The mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, has said that she and her team “have been discussing and planning for many months in the case that the District has to defend itself and its values.”

So how exactly could Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress change D.C.? And could it happen all on day one? Let’s take a look.

What is D.C. and how was it created?

The creation of the District of Columbia comes directly from the U.S. Constitution, which provides that the district, "not exceeding 10 Miles square," would "become the Seat of the Government of the United States." In 1790, Congress created D.C. as “the federal district” to be the America’s capital. However, Washington, D.C. residents did not get the right to vote for president or vice president until the states ratified the Twenty-Third Amendment in 1961.

D.C. has three electoral votes—the number of electors that the states with the smallest populations have—despite D.C. having about 700,000 more residents than Vermont and Wyoming, which also get three electoral votes.  

In 1970, nine years after D.C. residents got the right to vote in presidential elections, Congress passed the Delegate Act. That law created a seat in the House of Representatives elected by D.C. residents, but provided (and does to this day) that their representative does not have the right to vote.

Eight years later, a constitutional amendment was proposed to give complete voting rights in Congress to the residents of D.C. It did not pass, as it was only ratified by sixteen state legislatures out of the thirty-right that they needed.

In the meantime, in 1973, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, establishing a local government legislative branch for D.C. voters. The Act established a Council made up of a chairman and twelve members.

The Home Rule Act was a significant step for D.C. citizens who wanted to control their local affairs for a long time. Since its creation, the Council has established an elected Attorney General for the citizens of D.C. and achieved control of the local budget. But the local government remains a significantly limited democracy.

What power does the federal government have over D.C.?

While residents of the nation’s capital still lack voting rights in Congress, Congress retains the ability to overturn any legislation that the Council may pass.