FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. government will start seeking the death penalty in Washington, D.C., homicide cases, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

"If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we're going to be seeking the death penalty, and that's a very strong preventative," Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting. "I don't know if we're ready for it in this country, but we have it. It is - we have no choice."

The move would further expand the Republican's efforts to seek the mantle of law-and-order president and to exert power over the nation's capital, whose residents are largely Democrats.

Trump declared an emergency, deployed hundreds of National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officials in the nation's capital to supplement local police dealing with what he said was an unacceptable level of violent street crime.

City officials have rejected the claim that violent crime is rampant, pointing to federal and city statistics that show it has declined significantly since a spike in 2023.

He has threatened to expand the effort to other cities, including Chicago.

Washington is a unique federal enclave, established in the U.S. Constitution and falling under the jurisdiction of Congress, not belonging to any state.

In 1973, Congress passed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, allowing residents to elect a mayor and council members. Trump has threatened to take over the management of the city to deal with crime and vagrancy.

Washington has outlawed the death penalty for local crime, but it remains permissible for certain crimes under federal law.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington prosecutes both local and federal crimes in the U.S. capital, and the Trump administration has recently encouraged prosecutors to bring federal charges against those arrested as part of its crackdown on crime in Washington.

Attorney General Pam Bondi in February lifted a Biden-era pause on most federal executions and the Justice Department under Trump has already said it will seek the death penalty in the case of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson last year.

Seeking the death penalty for homicides in Washington would likely drastically increase the number of defendants on federal death row. Such cases often take many years to work through the court system given the number of appeals available to defendants.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot)