“Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday night rescinded Washington policies that restrict the local police from aiding in immigration enforcement as she moved to tighten the Trump administration’s grip on law enforcement in the nation’s capital,” the New York Times reports.

“The two-page order from Ms. Bondi also declared that Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who had already been overseeing the federal takeover of the city’s police department, was now the ‘emergency police commissioner,’ with ‘all the powers and duties’ invested in the city’s police chief, Pamela A. Smith.”

Washington Post: Muriel Bowser and D.C. attorney general reject push by Bondi to name emergency police commissioner.

“City officials and advocates warned people living in homeless camps to head to shelters or risk arrest in the federal sweeps that were expected to begin Thursday evening as part of President Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in the capital,” the New York Times reports.

“I think the most important thing is that people see themselves and their struggles in your campaign… And I think the larger struggle for us as Democrats is to ensure that we are practicing a politics that is direct, a politics of no translation, a politics that when you read the policy commitment, you understand it, as how it applies to your life.”

— Zohran Mamdani, in an interview with Time.

“President Donald Trump will ask Congress to pass a ‘D.C. security fund’ as part of his push to remake the capital city, a hugely controversial effort that has seen him take over the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy hundreds of National Guard troops and federal law-enforcement officers into Washington neighborhoods,” Punchbowl News reports.

“The composition of the so-called ‘security fund’ is in its infancy. And the White House will face the reality that Congress has to pass government-funding bills at the end of September, with a potential federal shutdown this fall more likely than not at this point.”

When asked about Trump’s proposal, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had a quick response: “No fucking way.”

“Residents in one Washington, D.C., neighborhood lined up Wednesday to protest the increased police presence after the White House said the number of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital would ramp up and federal officers would be on the streets around the clock,” the AP reports.

“After law enforcement set up a vehicle checkpoint along the busy 14th Street Northwest corridor, hecklers shouted, ‘Go home, fascists’ and ‘Get off our streets.’ Some protesters stood at the intersection before the checkpoint and urged drivers to turn away from it.”

Washington Post: D.C. to see more federal troops as Trump pushes to extend emergency.

On Truth Social, President Trump framed his efforts as part of a crusade to “liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!”

“President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on his fellow Republicans in Congress to pass a crime bill extending the 30-day limit on federal police control in Washington, adding that he could declare a national emergency if lawmakers don’t act,” Reuters reports.

“The crime-related legislation would initially pertain to the nation’s capital, but could used as a model for other U.S. cities.”

“The White House on Tuesday said homeless people in the nation’s capital could be subject to fines and jail time as the administration cracks down on crime,” The Hill reports.

Said press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “The homeless problem has ravaged the city.”

She added: “Homeless individuals will be given the option to leave their encampment, to be taken to a homeless shelter, to be offered addiction or mental health services, and if they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time.”

Steve Vladeck: “The upshot of all of this is that the President does have two important authorities when it comes to ‘local’ law enforcement in the District of Columbia: He can use the (small) D.C. National Guard in circumstances in which he probably couldn’t use any other military personnel; and he can require the use of MPD ‘for federal purposes’ for up to 30 days. That’s not nothing, but it also isn’t anything close to some kind of federal takeover of the nation’s capital.”

President Trump vowed this week to rid Washington, D.C., of homeless encampments, issuing a warning that the “homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” ABC News reports.

“Though what those plans will look like, including where people will go, is unclear, sparking concerns among advocacy groups.”

“Even before he took office, President Donald Trump had an informal playbook for how he would use the powers of the presidency to take control of the District of Columbia, with options prepared for him such as deploying more federal law enforcement officers or taking over the entire municipal government,” the Washington Post reports.

“The only questions were which option he would choose and when he would opt to implement it.”

Axios: Inside Trump’s power play for more control in D.C.

Quinta Jurecic: “He’s sending in the troops because he can—because D.C., as a federal enclave with few protections from presidential overreach, makes for a uniquely soft target. This ostensible show of strength is more like an admission of weakness. It is the behavior of a bully: very bad for the people it touches, but not a likely prelude to full authoritarian takeover.”

“Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, on Monday called President Trump’s announced takeover of the city’s police force ‘unsettling and unprecedented’ but appeared resigned to cooperate with it, stressing at a news conference that there was little she could do to block the move,” the New York Times reports.

“Ms. Bowser’s tone was strikingly diplomatic, an approach in keeping with the more muted posture she has adopted toward Mr. Trump during his second term, as compared to more fiery statements during his first term opposing similar threats to the city’s limited autonomy.”

The Guardian: “Red meat to throw to his base.”

“President Donald Trump announced Monday that he would place the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deploy the National Guard to the streets of Washington to fight crime and clear the city of its homeless population, an extraordinary flex of federal power that could expose residents of the nation’s capital to unpredictable encounters with a domestically-deployed military force,” the Washington Post reports.

“The decision to deploy troops comes as the president has been slamming America’s cities as places where crime is out of control, despite two years of declines that have brought homicide levels in many major cities to their lowest levels in decades.”

For members: Can Trump Really Take Over D.C.?