Trump Says Washington Mayor Must Clean up Homeless Encampments

The federal government will clean up the ‘unsightly’ encampments if the mayor’s office is unable to, President Donald Trump said.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser takes a question from a reporter at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Feb. 21, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Donald Trump said on March 5 that his administration had informed Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser that she must clean up homeless encampments in the city.

“We have notified the Mayor of Washington, D.C., that she must clean up all of the unsightly homeless encampments in the City, specifically including the ones outside of the State Department, and near the White House,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her! Washington, D.C. must become CLEAN and SAFE! We want to be proud of our Great Capital again.”

Last month, Trump criticized the high rate of crime, graffiti, and homelessness plaguing the nation’s capital city and suggested the federal government should take over running Washington, which has had a limited form of self-governance under the control of Congress since 1973.

“[Officials are] not doing the job—too much crime, too much graffiti, too many tents on the lawns, there’s magnificent lawns and there’s tents. It’s a sad thing. Homeless people all over the place. We’ve got to take care of the homeless, but I can’t have that in Washington, D.C, ” he told reporters on Air Force One on Feb. 19. “I think we should take over Washington ... I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it flawlessly beautiful.”

Bowser rejected the idea and said she believed the current system of governance is best.

On Tuesday, the mayor announced Washington is removing the Black Lives Matter mural from near the White House.

The 50-foot-tall painting on a two-block section of 16th Street North West close to the White House is part of Black Lives Matter Plaza. The plaza was created in 2020 amid nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. It was made permanent in 2021.

Bowser said in a March 4 statement on the social media platform X that the mural “inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference.”

The mayor added that the “devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern” and that her office is focused on “economic growth, public safety, and supporting our residents affected by these cuts.”

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has terminated tens of thousands of federal workers across several agencies, including employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health.

Bowser’s comments came a day after Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) introduced legislation that would withhold federal transportation funds from Washington unless it changed the plaza’s name to “Liberty Plaza.”

In a March 3 statement, Clyde backed Trump’s efforts to clean up Washington’s streets and said he believed that removing Black Lives Matter Plaza “must be part of this critical effort.”

“It’s past time for Congress to exercise its constitutional authority over Washington’s affairs to remove BLM Plaza and rename the street to Liberty Plaza,” Clyde said. “Our capital city must serve as a beacon of freedom, patriotism, and safety—not wokeness, divisiveness, and lawlessness.”

In February 2023, National Park Service employees cleared a large homeless encampment near the White House, tearing down dozens of tents and warning that those who resisted could be arrested.

Workers in white jumpsuits used rakes, shovels, and pitchforks to clear McPherson Square, tossing the remnants of the encampment into garbage trucks.

The Epoch Times contacted Bowser’s office for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.