In a further expansion of its occupation of the District of Columbia, the Trump administration announced it will take control of operations at Washington, D.C.’s historic Union Station, citing crime and homelessness as justification. Crime in the nation’s capital fell by double digits last year, and dropped by double digits again this year.
“We’re gonna take it back, and we’re gonna drive out the homelessness,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News on Wednesday. “We’re gonna drive out the crime.”
“And we are going to, I think, bring in more retailers, I think more customers. It’ll be better revenue,” he said.
“And again, this is our capital city. It should be beautiful, and the president wants a beautiful capital. I want a beautiful capital. And so, this plan is gonna make Union Station represent the president’s vision of what America can and should look like.”
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The Department of Transportation owns Union Station, but will now exercise more control. Secretary Duffy “said it will involve a cooperative agreement with the nonprofit Union Station Redevelopment Corp., which controls the station, and Amtrak, which leases space from the USRC,” The Washington Post reported.
“I think the president has been pretty clear on what he wants for Union Station, for American travel, for travel,” Duffy said at an Amtrak event on Wednesday. “He wants Union Station to be beautiful again. He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again.”
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Axios added that “Union Station has been a focal point for the Trump administration’s military deployment in D.C. Top members of the Trump administration — including Vice President Vance — bashed the station’s management and cast it as crime-ridden at an Aug. 20 press conference.”
Earlier this month, Fox News reported that “about seven National Guard Humvees and other military vehicles, and around 25 to 30 troops, stood guard outside D.C.’s Union Station.”
The Department of Transportation has also wrested control of the renovations of New York City’s Penn Station. Some news reports earlier this year have suggested that Penn Station’s name might be changed and named for President Donald Trump.
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