President Donald Trump reportedly intends to sign an executive order on Monday that would punish Washington, D.C., if city officials refuse to end their “cashless bail” policy.
“A White House official said the executive order could threaten to withhold federal funding or government-backed project approvals from [D.C.] if it doesn’t end its cashless-bail policy,” Axios reported.
The administration is opposed to D.C.’s “cashless bail” policy on the grounds that it hurts “law-abiding, hard-working” people the most.
“Cashless bail policies allow dangerous individuals to immediately return to the streets and further endanger law-abiding, hard-working Americans because they know our laws will not be enforced,” a White House memo reviewed by the New York Post read.
The memo added that arresting repeat offenders for crimes they commit after being released is a “waste of public resources and obvious threat to public safety.”
DC Council Chair: “There isn’t a crime crisis in DC”
*one week later*
Man freed by judge after being arrested for armed robbery with two previous warrants follows a woman into her hotel and stabs her to death. pic.twitter.com/Chyrn2EJVo
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 4, 2023
Trump previewed this decision when he announced plans to federalize the D.C. police earlier this month.
“Other cities are hopefully watching this, … and maybe they’ll self-clean up, and maybe they’ll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem,” he said.
Does cashless bail make cities more dangerous for law-abiding citizens?
“If you go back, this whole thing with cashless bail is a disaster. So many problems came that we never had before,” he added.
He went on to threaten action against other jurisdictions “if they don’t learn their lesson, if they haven’t studied us properly.”
President Trump says he hopes other U.S. cities are watching his deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and “maybe they’ll self-clean up, and maybe they’ll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem.”
Violent… pic.twitter.com/2QtajZ7spB
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 11, 2025
D.C. for its part eliminated cash bail decades ago in the 1990s. The policy put in place since then allows judges to decide for themselves whether or not a suspect/defendant should be released or not.
The implementation of this policy has coincided with a drastic uptick in judges releasing suspects back onto the streets, even after they’ve been accused of committing extremely serious crimes.
“An examination of court records … shows D.C. Superior Court judges are releasing murder suspects from jail and placing them in the High-Intensity Supervision Program or allowing them out on their own personal recognizance,” D.C. station WTTG reported in 2020.
Then-D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham called this phenomenon “a very, very serious public safety issue.”
WTTG took note of one case which involved “a man charged in 2018 with the 2004 murder of a woman” who subsequently “spent 17 days in jail before being released on his own personal recognizance.”
“It was a kick in the face, it was a kick in the gut and I actually felt that, I actually felt that,” said Deborah Evans-Bailey — the mother of the victim, Kendra Smith.
By cracking down on cashless bail, Trump is satisfying a campaign promise.
“When I’m re-elected, I will crack down on the left-wing jurisdictions that refuse to prosecute dangerous criminals and set loose violent felons on cashless bail,” he said on the campaign trail last year, Axios reported.
“If you kill somebody, there’s no bond. Don’t worry about it. Go ahead. Kill somebody else. These people are crazy, I’ll tell you,” he added.
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