President Donald Trump appeared to hint that he could initiate a federal takeover of Los Angeles and New York City ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games and the 2026 World Cup next year.
During an Oval Office event Thursday, Trump was asked about this week’s federal takeover of the police in Washington, D.C., and whether he had a response to criticism from the Democrats that the move was an attempt to “start a new news cycle.”
In response, Trump accused the Democrats and the media of lying about the crime rate in D.C. and in the same breath, launched into a spiel about the Olympics in LA.
He briefly mentioned the 2026 World Cup, where the final will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which is being billed as the “New York New Jersey Stadium” on FIFA’s website. LA was confirmed as the host of the 2028 Olympics in 2017.
“People are so happy to see our military going into D.C. and getting these thugs out,” Trump claimed. “We’re getting people that have arrest records that you wouldn’t believe…in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles…”
Trump claimed the Olympics would not be going ahead in LA had he not sent in the National Guard in June after protests flared up in response to anti-immigration raids in the city.
“If I didn’t send in the troops, I don’t think you would’ve had Los Angeles in condition to have the Olympics,” Trump said. “I want to make sure the Olympics is great, the World Cup is great…and maybe most important of all is the 250-year celebration is great.”
He then added: “If I didn’t go and put our military there, or National Guard in that case — and we’ll go military if we have to — but the National Guard were there and were very effective.”
Trump has established task forces for both major sporting events and will be heavily involved in each of them.
Earlier in the week, as he deployed National Guard troops into the nation’s capital, Trump also threatened to wade into other cities.
“We're not going to lose our cities over this. This will go further. We're starting very strongly with D.C., and we're going to clean it up real quick,” Trump told reporters.
“We're going to take back our capital. And then we'll look at other cities also. But other cities are studying what we're doing.”
The president also said this week that he expects Congress to approve the extension of his federal takeover in D.C. beyond 30 days.
“We're going to be asking for extensions on that, long-term extensions, because you can't have 30 days,” Trump said Wednesday at the Kennedy Center.
Washington, D.C. is a unique case due to the Home Rule Act, which allows the president to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department for federal purposes during emergencies if “special conditions of an emergency nature exist.”
However, Trump can’t deputize federal troops, including state National Guard detachments, to conduct crime-control activities without the cooperation of state leaders and a rationalization for doing so.
