Washington, D.C., authorities cleared a homeless encampment near the State Department on Friday, following President Donald Trump’s call for a citywide cleanup.
Video footage shows officials dismantling tents near an expressway, while another clip captures a woman being detained at the site as she shouts profanities. Work crews began clearing the area on Thursday, the Washington Post reported.
The cleanup comes after Trump on Wednesday warned D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser (D.) that she must remove homeless encampments in her city or face federal intervention.
“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 wrote 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!”
While D.C. had already scheduled the removal of 10 encampments across the city between February 27 and March 13, Bowser decided to expedite the cleanup near the State Department following a Wednesday call with the Trump administration, a city spokeswoman told the Post.
Trump last month said the federal government should “take over the governance” of the nation’s capital, as the Constitution permits, arguing that local leaders are not doing enough to address crime and homelessness. “I think that we should govern the District of Columbia,” Trump told reporters. “I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it absolutely flawless.”
Bowser has signaled a greater willingness to work with Trump’s second administration. The mayor said in December that she had a “great meeting” with Trump to discuss their priorities for the city, The Hill reported. The mayor on Tuesday indicated that the city might paint over the Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, replacing it with murals as part of the city’s America 250 project ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.
