President Trump has come out against granting statehood to Washington, D.C., reasoning in an interview out Tuesday that doing so would be too politically advantageous for Democrats.
“D.C will never be a state,” Mr. Trump told the New York Post during a White House interview conducted Monday inside the Oval Office.
“You mean District of Columbia, a state? Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No, thank you. That’ll never happen,” Mr. Trump said.
Despite having a population exceeding those of both Wyoming and Vermont, D.C. is denied representation in Congress due to its unique status as the nation’s capital.
The District’s roughly 700,000 residents are accordingly without a voting senator member in the House of Representatives, making statehood a cause célèbre among Washingtonians.
D.C. is predominately Democratic, and any eventual representation in Congress would likely reflect that. More than 75% of the city’s nearly 500,000 voters are registered Democrats, while fewer than 6% are registered Republicans, according to the latest D.C. Board of Elections data.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee has advanced legislation to make D.C. the 51st state, but The Post reported that Mr. Trump suggested Republicans are sure to reject it.
“They want to do that so they pick up two automatic Democrat — you know it’s 100 percent Democrat, basically — so why would the Republicans ever do that?” the president told the Post.
“That’ll never happen unless we have some very, very stupid Republicans around that I don’t think you do. You understand that, right?” Mr. Trump said.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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