U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, this past week, decided to replace the police chief of Washington, D.C. 

Fox News reports that Bondi gave the order on Thursday.

As we will see, however, Bondi has since changed her mind, meaning that Metro Police Chief Pamela Smith will be keeping her job. The question, of course, is what changed.

BREAKING: DC Mayor Bowser announces that the District and the Trump administration have reached an agreement that DC Police Chief Pamela Smith will remain in command after last night’s attempt by AG Bondi to install DEA chief Terry Cole as emergency police commissioner. pic.twitter.com/6ygQfVvnB0

— Jim Lokay (@Lokay) August 15, 2025

Trump's D.C. takeover

This is all part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on crime in the nation's capital.

To this end, Bondi, as the head of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), issued an order, titled, "Restoring Safety and Security to the District of Columbia." The order did several things, including taking restraints off of law enforcement so that they could do their job.

The order also took power away from Smith. It did so by replacing Smith with Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole. Bondi named Cole the "emergency police commissioner," and she gave him all of the "powers and duties vested" in the position.

Fox explains:

Cole has the ability to issue general orders, executive orders and written directives affecting all members of the department, and existing department leadership must receive his approval before issuing directives of their own.

However, it appears that Smith will be keeping her job.

Bondi does a u-turn

It was less than a day later that Bondi had a change of mind about replacing Smith.

As for what changed, the New York Post reports that "officials in the nation’s capital sued to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington police."

As a result, Bondi issued a new order.

Per the Post:

The attorney general’s new order represents a partial retreat for the Trump administration in the face of intense skepticism from a judge over the legality of Bondi’s earlier directive that sought to put the police force under the full control of the federal government. But Bondi also signaled the administration would continue to pressure D.C. leaders to help federal authorities aggressively pursue immigrants in the country illegally, despite city laws on the books that limit cooperation between police and immigration authorities.

It now appears that this situation will play out in the courts. Trump and his team, though, are still pushing to get D.C. crime under control.