On Monday, August 25, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping series of executive orders targeting the practice of cashless bail and ramping up federal intervention in Washington, D.C.—a move that has ignited fierce debate over public safety, civil liberties, and the reach of presidential power. The orders, announced from the Oval Office and confirmed by multiple outlets including The Hill and Mathrubhumi, mark a decisive escalation in Trump’s ongoing campaign to crack down on urban crime, with D.C. serving as the first battleground.
The first executive order directs law enforcement agencies in the nation’s capital to detain those arrested “to the fullest extent permissible under applicable law,” effectively ending the city’s decades-old cashless bail system. The second order goes further, instructing the Justice Department to identify other jurisdictions nationwide that continue to use cashless bail and warning that these areas could lose federal funding if they do not comply. According to The Hill, the administration is poised to review federal grants and contracts for states and cities that do not move away from cashless bail policies.
“Cashless bail, we’re ending it,” Trump declared in the Oval Office, as reported by The Hill. “But we’re starting by ending it in D.C. And that we have the right to do through federalization.” Trump’s move comes after repeated criticisms of Democratic-led states and cities—such as Illinois, New York, and California—for what he describes as lax law enforcement and policies that allow dangerous offenders to roam free.
Cashless bail, in place in Washington, D.C. since 1992, was originally introduced to address concerns that people were being jailed simply because they couldn’t afford to pay bail—not because they posed a threat. Critics of the cash bail system have long argued that it disproportionately harms low-income individuals, preventing them from returning to their families or jobs while awaiting trial. But Trump and his allies, including U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, have framed cashless bail as a “disaster” that leaves repeat offenders on the streets. At a press conference earlier this month, Trump insisted, “Every place in the country where you have no cash bail is a disaster. That’s what started the problem in New York, and they don’t change it. They don’t want to change it. That’s what started it in Chicago … We’re gonna end that in Chicago. We’re gonna change the statute.”
Pirro echoed the president’s sentiments, saying, “I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the [heck] out of you or anyone else. We need to go after the D.C. Council and their absurd laws. We need to get rid of this concept of ‘no cash bail … We need to recognize that the people who matter are the law-abiding citizens.”
Despite these claims, available data shows no significant documented increase in violent crimes among arrestees released under cashless bail, as highlighted by Mathrubhumi. In fact, violent crime in Washington dropped to a 30-year low last year. Still, the new orders threaten to revoke funding from D.C. city projects if cashless bail is not eliminated, signaling a new willingness to wield federal purse strings as leverage. The administration has already taken similar steps: earlier in 2025, the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs canceled more than 360 grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars for state police departments, prisons, and nonprofits that weren’t strictly focused on public safety.
Trump’s ambitions extend well beyond the capital. D.C. is just the “testing ground” for what he hopes will become a nationwide ban on cashless bail. The executive order gives Attorney General Pam Bondi 30 days to submit a list of states and local jurisdictions that have “substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial release from custody for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order,” including violent, sexual, or property crimes. Cabinet secretaries and agency heads are then instructed to “identify Federal funds, including grants and contracts, currently provided to cashless bail jurisdictions … that may be suspended or terminated, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law,” as reported by The Post.
New York, for example, eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies in 2019, and judges there are required to consider an offender’s financial situation when setting bond. Illinois has eliminated cash bail entirely, while New Jersey has moved away from cash bail for certain offenses. The potential loss of federal funding is no small threat: New York State expects to receive $91 billion in federal funds in fiscal year 2026, and New York City alone is set to receive $7.3 billion, much of it for social safety-net programs, according to state comptroller data cited by The Post. Any attempt to rescind these funds is likely to face legal challenges, since much of the money has already been appropriated by Congress.
Meanwhile, Trump’s orders also ramp up the federal government’s role in D.C. policing. He has assumed control of the city’s police department, deployed around 2,000 National Guard troops, and ordered the creation of a special National Guard unit “dedicated to ensuring public safety and order” in the capital. Another order directs the attorney general to review whether the Metropolitan Police Department has impeded officers from doing their jobs effectively. And while Trump has threatened to crack down on crime in other cities, such as Chicago, he lacks the authority to federalize their police departments as he has in D.C., a fact noted by The Hill.
Alongside the bail orders, Trump signed an executive order targeting flag desecration. The directive instructs the Justice Department to review incidents of flag burning and to prosecute offenders under existing state and local laws—such as public nuisance or disorderly conduct—even if those laws do not directly address flag burning. The order also calls for the revocation of visas for foreign nationals found guilty of flag desecration. Trump has long advocated for harsh penalties for flag burning, suggesting jail terms or even loss of citizenship. “We’re looking very strongly at flag burning,” he said previously. However, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1989 decision established that flag burning is protected as free speech under the First Amendment, a precedent courts have consistently upheld.
Trump’s crackdown has not gone without criticism. Opponents argue that targeting cashless bail and threatening federal funding will disproportionately impact low-income communities and undermine reforms meant to address systemic inequalities in the criminal justice system. Supporters, meanwhile, insist the measures are necessary to keep dangerous offenders off the streets and restore order to cities they view as plagued by crime. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a close Trump ally, announced plans to introduce legislation outlawing cashless bail policies nationwide.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has yet to comment on the orders, which put the city at the center of a national debate over law enforcement, federalism, and civil rights. As the dust settles, all eyes are on Washington to see how these sweeping changes will play out—and whether they will become a model for the rest of the country.
With executive orders now in motion and the threat of withheld funding looming, the battle over cashless bail and federal intervention in local policing is poised to reshape not only D.C., but the national conversation about justice, safety, and the limits of presidential power.
