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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is putting Washington, D.C. police “under direct federal control” — invoking Section 740 of D.C.’s Home Rule Act, which deals with control of the city’s police force.

“We’re taking it back. Under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States, I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. You know what that is — and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control,” Trump said.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has not yet publicly commented on Trump’s announcement. ABC News has reached out to Bowser as well as the Metropolitan Police Department for comment.

D.C.’s Home Rule Act of 1973 allows D.C. residents to elect a mayor, members of D.C. Council and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners. The act “is the result of the ongoing push by District residents for control of their own local affairs,” according to D.C. Council.

Still, under the act, there is congressional oversight. Congress reviews all legislation passed the D.C. city council before it can become law and has authority over D.C.’s budget. Additionally, the president appoints D.C.’s judges and D.C. has no voting representation in Congress.

Section 740 of the Home Rule Act gives the president the ability to use D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department for “federal purposes” that the president “may deem necessary and appropriate.” On Monday, Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi is taking command of D.C.’s police force.

Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act does have some limitations. The emergency control will expire in 30 days, unless the Senate and House enact into law a joint resolution to extend it.

Asked about the 30-day timeframe on ABC News Live, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the president has sent a “real clear message” about the direction he wants to take D.C.

“I think at the end of 30 days he will make the right decision as to what he is going to do at that point going forward,” she said.

Trump has long threatened to take control of D.C., saying he wants to crack down on violent crime in the district although police statistics show that in the past two years, violent crime in Washington, D.C., has fallen dramatically.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton — the non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives from Washington, D.C. — called Trump’s decision “an egregious assault on D.C. home rule.”

“There are more than 700,000 D.C. residents, and they are worthy and capable of governing themselves,” Norton said in a statement Monday. “The ultimate solution to ensure D.C. has control of its own resources is passage of my D.C. statehood bill, which would provide D.C. the same protections the states enjoy.”

She says the move helps justify the need to pass legislation she has repeatedly reintroduced to establish statehood in the District of Columbia.

On Capitol Hill, many Democrats have said the moves are a power grab by the president and a distraction from other matters, such as Trump’s involvement with the Jeffrey Epstein files.

“Violent crime in Washington, D.C. is at a thirty-year low. Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department. And zero credibility on the issue of law and order. Get lost,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a post on X.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said in a post on X that “Trump’s decision to take over the DC police isn’t about public safety” and is “another attempt to distract from Trump’s corruption and suppress dissent.”

In a post on X, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith wrote, “WHAT THE HECK IS IN THOSE FILES?!” — a reference to the Epstein files — accompanied by a video of Trump in the briefing room for his announcement.

Republicans have lauded the announcement, claiming that Trump is “making D.C. safe again.”

“President Trump is RIGHT. We can’t allow crime to destroy our Nation’s Capital,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X. “Every American should be able to visit and enjoy Washington, D.C. without fear. House Republicans support this effort to CLEAN UP Washington, END the crime wave, and RESTORE the beauty of the greatest capital in the world.”

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley applauded Trump’s decision, saying on X, “Make DC beautiful — and SAFE — again!”

ABC News’ Jack Date, Isabella Murray and John Parkinson contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed he and his administration are considering reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

Trump told reporters that it was early in the process but that he hoped to make a decision on the matter within the coming weeks.

“We’re looking at reclassification and we’ll make a determination over the next — I would say over the next few weeks, and that determination hopefully will be the right one. It’s very complicated subject,” Trump said as he held a news conference in the White House briefing room.

Trump was in the briefing room to announce a federal takeover of Washington’s police force and deployment of the National Guard to deal, he said, with the city’s crime and homelessness. He was asked at the news conference if reclassifying marijuana would send mixed messages as his administration says it wants to “clean up” crime in the nation’s capital and potentially other cities.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump was weighing rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug to a Schedule 3 drug.

Classified as a Schedule 1 drug, marijuana is listed alongside heroin and LSD as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

By contrast, Schedule 3 drugs are define as those with “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” and include ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.

During the final year of the Biden administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration said it supported recommending the reclassification of marijuana.

Reclassifying marijuana would allow for more research into the drug and provide tax benefits to the cannabis industry.

Trump on Monday said he’s heard good and bad things regarding the drug.

“I’ve heard great things having to do with medical, and I’ve had bad things having to do with just about everything else. But medical, and, you know, for pain and various things,” Trump said.

“Some people like it, some people hate it,” the president said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday previewed his highly-anticipated meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, saying he’s hopeful for “constructive conversations” but that it isn’t up to him to make a peace deal.

Trump confirmed last week he would sit down with Putin in Alaska as his imposed deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine came and went. No exact time or specific venue has been announced for Friday’s summit.

“This is really a feel-out meeting, a little bit,” Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room, where he held a news conference on a federal takeover of Washington’s police force and deployment of the National Guard to deal, he said, with the city’s crime and homelessness.

“I think if it weren’t for me, he would not be even talking to anybody else right now,” Trump said of Putin. At the same time, Trump downplayed the idea that Friday’s talks will result in an end to the war in Ukraine.

“We’re going to see what the parameters are, and then I’m going to call up President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and the European leaders right after the meeting,” Trump added. “And I’m going to tell them what kind of a deal — I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal.”

Trump said Zelenskyy wasn’t invited to be part of Friday’s meeting, but that he’d call the Ukrainian leader first after to relay what was discussed. He said if there’s a “fair deal” that he would reveal it to Zelenskyy and European leaders.

“And I may say, ‘Lots of luck, keep fighting’ or I may say, ‘We can make a deal,'” Trump said.

When asked by Trump how he’ll know whether a deal can be made, Trump responded: “Because that’s what I do. I make deals.”

Trump declined to share specifics on what he would consider a fair agreement between Ukraine and Russia, but again suggested that there would be “some land swapping.”

Trump said his goal was to set up a next meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin or between himself, Zelenskyy and Putin.

“I’ll be there if they need, but I want to have a meeting set up between the two leaders,” Trump said.

Friday’s meeting will mark the first time Putin will be in the U.S. since 2015. Trump on Monday mistakenly said he was “going to Russia” as he discussed the summit, though he also praised the fact that Putin is coming to the U.S. rather than the other way around.

“I thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country as opposed to us going to his country or even a third party place,” Trump said. “But I think we’ll have constructive conversations.”

Trump on Monday continued to express frustration with Putin and Zelenskyy, and again claimed the war wouldn’t have started if he were president. Trump had repeatedly claimed on the campaign trail that he would end the war within his first 24 hours in office, which he later said was an exaggeration. He described the yearslong conflict as “complex” with a “lot of bad blood” but that he would press Putin to pursue peace.

“I am going in to speak to Vladimir Putin and I will be telling him, ‘You have to end this war. You have to end it.’ And he wasn’t going to mess with me. This war would have never happened,” Trump said.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — The battle over potential mid-decade redistricting in Texas — where the state’s congressional district lines could be redrawn well ahead of the upcoming census — continued Monday as dozens of Texas House Democrats remained out of state for a second week to block any potential votes on the map.

In Austin, the Texas House of Representatives is scheduled to meet and the redistricting bill is technically scheduled for a second reading (which would not be a vote to pass it out of the chamber). But this cannot happen without a quorum present; Republican legislators may try for another roll call vote to see if they still do not have a quorum.

The Texas Senate is also scheduled to meet and may vote on its own version of redistricting legislation, although if it votes the bill out of the Senate it cannot be voted on in the House until there is a quorum.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, separately, escalated legal efforts last week to get Democrats back to Texas or investigate who is funding their efforts.

Abbott has also said he will call special legislative session after special session to get the Republican-supported maps passed, even if Democrats run out the 30-day clock on the current session.

“I’m authorized to call a special session every 30 days. It lasts 30 days, and as soon as this one is over, I’m going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one. If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol,” he told Fox News in an interview on Sunday.

“If they want to evade that arrest, they’re going to stay outside of the state of Texas for literally years, and they might as well just start voting in California or voting in Illinois, wherever they may be,” he continued.

But Democrats are also going on the offensive. Eric Holder, a former attorney general and current chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, is set to speak about redistricting with U.S. House Democrats on Wednesday.

In California, legislators have said they expect to unveil proposed new congressional maps this week that would possibly go in front of voters for approval in a special election in November. But running a statewide election with relatively little notice will be a challenge, the Secretary of State’s office has said.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter to Trump saying it would drop its potential plans if other states would do the same.

“You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,” Newsom wrote. Separately, governors in Florida, Indiana, and Missouri have indicated interest in potential mid-decade redistricting.

Some of the Texas House Democrats who have broken quorum will be appearing at pressers in Illinois on Monday excoriating the continued efforts to redraw the maps.

During an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker took pride in housing Texas Democrats, calling President Donald Trump a ‘cheater.’

“[Republicans] know that they’re going to lose in 2026, the congress, and so they’re trying to steal seats, and so that is what these Texas Democrats are trying to stand up against and then don’t forget. The map that they put together, it violates the voting rights act and it violates the constitution,” Pritzker said.

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