The administration of President Donald Trump has announced it plans to take control of Union Station, a major transportation hub in the United States capital of Washington, DC.
Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy delivered the announcement on Wednesday, as he stood with leaders from the rail company Amtrak to unveil a new fleet of faster Acela trains.
Previously, Amtrak had run the building, which is one of the busiest train stations in the country as well as a shopping centre and transfer point for buses, streetcars and metro lines.
But Duffy emphasised that the Department of Transportation (DOT) owned the building, and he argued that the Trump administration could therefore exert its rights over the station’s management.
“Today, we’re announcing that we’re going to take Union Station back under DOT control,” Duffy said.
“Not a power play. We’ve always had it, but we think that we can manage the property better, bring in more tenants, bring in more revenue, and that revenue is going to allow us to make investments in this beautiful building.”
Exerting influence over Washington, DC
Since taking office for a second term in January, Trump has sought to expand executive power on several fronts, including by seeking changes to the nation’s capital.
Earlier this month, for instance, Trump issued an executive order declaring a “crime emergency” in Washington, DC, and he has since deployed more than 2,000 members of the National Guard to patrol the streets.
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The idea that the capital is experiencing a crime wave, however, is not reflected in the latest crime statistics collected by the local Metropolitan Police Department.
In January, the police released numbers indicating that violent crime in the city had fallen to a 30-year low, after a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump has nevertheless doubled down on his claims of rampant crime, including during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“ Crime in DC was the worst ever in history,” Trump said. He credited his military deployment with engineering a quick turnaround, though.
“Now, over the last 13 days, we’ve worked so hard, and we’ve taken so many — there are many left — but we’ve taken so many criminals. Over a thousand,” Trump added.
The Republican leader has also sought increasing sway over the capital’s cultural institutions.
In February, Trump oversaw an overhaul of the board governing the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and his replacements quickly elected him as the national theatre’s chair.
This month, the Trump administration also issued a letter to the head of the Smithsonian Museums announcing it would undertake a “comprehensive internal review” of the institutions “to celebrate American exceptionalism” and “remove divisive or partisan narratives”.
Trump himself has written on social media that the Smithsonian focused too much on the horrors of slavery, as opposed to US achievement.
“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been,” Trump posted.
“We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made. This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE.”
Union Station a key project
With its central location in downtown Washington, DC, Union Station has long been a focal point for concerns about crime and safety in the city.
Critics have long pushed to see a revival of the station’s shopping mall, which saw stores shutter amid a fall in foot traffic associated with COVID-19 pandemic.
Secretary Duffy, in Wednesday’s speech, tied Trump’s takeover of the station to his broader push to “clean up” the city.
“I think the president has been pretty clear on what he wants for Union Station, for American travel, for train travel,” Duffy said.
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“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. And today is part of that.”
He explained that Trump’s vision was to make Union Station the “premier train station in the world”.
“It needs investments. It’s been, I think, neglected for decades, and it’s shown its age,” Duffy said.
He added that he would like to see the expansion of high-speed rail through the facility, although the Trump administration recently revoked billions in funding for such a project in California.
“ I don’t think it should just be China, Europe, Japan, others that have high speed rail,” Duffy explained. “I think America deserves high speed rail.”
Amtrak’s control over Union Station has been relatively recent. The company gained control over the rail terminal in 2024, after a court battle for management of the station’s interior.
That November, the city announced it had received grants totalling $82m for improvements to Union Station, including expansion, modernisation and safety projects.
But the Trump administration has sought a greater role in US businesses in recent months. Last week, for instance, it said it had secured a 10-percent stake in the chipmaker Intel, and in June, it announced it had taken a “golden share” in Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel.
Still, Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, DC, expressed optimism towards the Department of Transportation’s plans for Union Station.
The mayor also explained that an influx of money could represent “a very significant and good investment for this region” — and that the city alone cannot fund the station’s renovation.
“The federal government owns Union Station. I don’t know the details of what will happen,” Bowser said. “If it’s just about management, I would consider that step one. If it’s about what Union Station needs for its total transformation, that would be an amazing initiative for the federal government to take on.”