President Donald Trump has announced he will seek $2 billion from Congress to finance a project aimed at revitalizing Washington, D.C. This request represents the latest step in a larger effort by the president to alter a city he has described as being overwhelmed with crime and decay. Trump’s baseless assertion that D.C. needs his help has grown into a campaign to transform the nation’s capital into an environment that resembles his private golf clubs.
The administration’s plan outlines improvements to light fixtures and roadways within a three-mile radius of the Capitol and the White House. The president has publicly accused D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of inadequately maintaining the cleanliness of the city. He stated his intention to have the city “beautified” within 12 months, according to the Washington Post.
Trump is a longtime real estate developer and golf club owner, so he has some ideas on how he wants D.C. to look. He has specifically noted rusting light poles and mismatched lenses as issues that need to be addressed. He has also promised to improve the roads using what he described as “beautiful, well done asphalt.”
Trump wants to remodel DC in his image
During a recent visit to a U.S. Park Police facility in Southeast Washington, the president also pledged to enhance the quality of the grass in D.C. parks so that it would resemble that of Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia or his personal clubs. The project would constitute an extraordinary level of federal intervention in the city’s management. In the seven months since he has been the sitting president, the White House has already deployed National Guard troops from across the country to D.C.’s streets and directed its staff to assume control of the municipal police force.
OPERATION MAKING D.C. SAFE & BEAUTIFUL pic.twitter.com/u73l44cy2u
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 11, 2025
Due to the city’s unique constitutional standing, Washington, D.C. holds no authority over its own National Guard, and Congress maintains ultimate control over its laws and budgetary matters. The president is also granted the power to assume temporary control of the city’s police force should he determine an emergency exists. This federal authority has placed D.C. officials in a difficult position. For the last six months, they have worked to appease the president and Republican members of Congress to avoid his disapproval.
The proposed initiative has garnered support from key Republican figures in Congress. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has stated that he and Senator Katie Boyd Britt of Alabama are working to guide a funding package through Congress. Graham said the “DC Security Fund” would give Trump the resources he needs to enhance the safety and quality of life in the capital. The senator also wrote in a public post that all Americans should support the effort to make Washington, D.C., a clean and safe place so that it can genuinely become a “shining city on the hill.”
