President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he is weighing the deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and may seek to place the city’s government under direct federal control, arguing that local officials have failed to curb violent crime. “We have a capital that’s very unsafe,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have to run D.C.” He added that lawyers are examining ways to overturn the 1973 Home Rule Act, which gives the District limited self-rule, and confirmed he is “considering” a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department. Trump’s remarks followed the weekend assault of Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old former staffer at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who is known online as “Big Balls.” Police say Coristine was beaten around 3 a.m. Sunday near Logan Circle after confronting a group of youths attempting to steal a car. Two 15-year-olds from Hyattsville, Maryland, have been charged with unarmed carjacking; authorities are searching for additional suspects. Coristine suffered a concussion and broken nose, according to people familiar with the matter, and his $1,000 iPhone was stolen. Trump circulated a graphic photo of the bloodied teenager on social media and called for prosecuting violent offenders as young as 14 as adults. Musk likewise urged that Washington be “federalized,” saying Coristine’s intervention saved a woman from the attempted carjacking. District crime data do not show the spike depicted by the president. Violent crime in the first seven months of 2025 fell 26% from a year earlier and overall crime declined 7%, Metropolitan Police Department records indicate. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office declined to comment on Trump’s threat. Any move to revoke home rule would require congressional legislation, setting up a potential clash between the White House, District leaders and lawmakers.