Why is the Trump administration taking over Union Station in Washington, D.C.?

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it is assuming control of Washington, D.C.’s Union Station, the main transportation hub in the nation’s capital. The move marks another step in President Trump’s takeover of Washington, which began earlier this month when the federal government took charge of law enforcement in the city.

The station had been run by Amtrak, a for-profit company that’s primarily owned by the government, but will now be under the command of the Department of Transportation.

“Instead of being a point of pride, Washington’s Union Station has fallen into disrepair,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday. “By reclaiming station management, we will help make this city safe and beautiful at a fraction of the cost.”

Union Station, which is a roughly 10-minute walk from Capitol Hill, has become “dilapidated” and “known more as a center for vagrancy than a hub for commerce and travel,” the department wrote in a press release announcing the change.

According to the Washington Post, Union Station is already in much better shape than it was just a few years ago. A large homeless encampment nearby was cleared in 2022 and the government has since enforced a no-camping zone at the station ever since. It’s also in the midst of a $10 billion expansion project that was announced last year.

At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Duffy said that his department’s takeover of Union Station was part of Trump’s broader vision for the city as a whole.

“He wants Union Station to be beautiful again,” Duffy said. “He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again. And today is part of that.”

Union Station is one of the country’s busiest train stations, serving as a hub for rail lines that connect major cities along the East Coast. More than 4.7 million passengers traveled through the station on Amtrak trains in 2023. D.C.’s light rail system, underground metrorail and local buses also run through Union Station.

It’s not clear how the change in leadership might affect travelers who pass through Union Station on a day-to-day basis. Duffy reportedly said his department might bring in some new “moneymaking ventures” to fund improvements, but did not offer specifics.

Trump deployed National Guard troops into D.C. two weeks ago in order to combat what he described as “lawlessness” that had consumed the city, despite official statistics showing that crime had dropped significantly over the past year.

He has also said he will ask Congress for $2 billion in additional funding to improve the appearance of the nation’s capital, including fixing roads, repairing streetlights and improving the grass in the city’s parks.

“It’s going to be safe, and it’s going to be beautified,” he said last week.

Trump has discussed sending the National Guard to other major U.S. cities, including Chicago. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has pledged to stop any federal troops from entering his state’s largest city. Trump has unique authority over what happens in D.C. that may not apply in other parts of the country, legal experts say.

Though crime in Washington, D.C., has declined over the past few years, the nation’s capital does have one of the highest homicide rates of any major U.S. city. It also faces persistent challenges with homelessness and, like many other U.S. cities, has seen its homeless population increase over the past three years.