WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed executive orders on Aug. 25 aimed at requiring criminal suspects to post a cash bond to be released from jail while waiting trial.
Trump’s mandate threatens to revoke federal funding for jurisdictions that allow suspects to be released without posting a bond. Another Trump order instructs DC police to charge suspects with federal crimes and hold them in federal custody to avoid releasing them without posting a bond.
“They kill people and they get out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re ending it. But we’re ending it in DC and that we have the right to do through federalization.”
Both orders are part of Trump’s focus on policing before the 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s administration has already begun directing policing in DC, and he has blasted Democratic mayors and governors for crime policies in New York, Chicago and major cities in California.
Cashless bail is a system in which defendants are released from jail while awaiting trial based on their promise to appear in court, rather than by paying a specific cash amount.
Critics say it reduces the incentive for defendants to show up for trial and puts public safety at risk by allowing them back on the street. But supporters say many low-income people can’t afford to post bond. They point to studies that bail should be based on risk factors, not wealth.
National Guard Members patrol 14th street, working with Washington DC Metro police on Aug. 24, 2025 in Washington, DC. An increased presence of law enforcement has been seen throughout the nation’s capital since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered in federal officers and the U.S. National Guard.
A 2023 study in New York City concluded that eliminating bail “was not associated with a change in overall re-arrest, felony re-arrest or violent felony re-arrest rates within either 2 years or during the pretrial period,” according to the the study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Likewise a report that analyzed DC crime from 2015 to 2019 concluded that bail reform “has been successful in releasing defendants pretrial without sacrificing public safety and maintaining high court appearance rates,” according to a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report in 2022.
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, said Trump’s order was about “keeping poor people in jail to maximize the profits of private prisons.”
“Trump doesn’t even have the authority to end cashless bail since it’s a local issue,” Johnson said.
Trump’s national order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to submit a list of local and state jurisdictions with cashless bail policies and identify federal funds in those places that could be “suspended or terminated.”
“Maintaining order and public safety requires incarcerating individuals whose pending criminal charges or criminal history demonstrate a clear ongoing risk to society,” the order said.
The DC order calls for Bondi to identify potential actions that include restricting federal funding, services and approvals.
“The District of Columbia government’s pretrial release policies, which include prohibiting cash bail, contribute to the disgraceful conditions referenced in the aforementioned Executive Order, as law enforcement must arrest the same individuals multiple times, and dangerous criminals are sometimes rapidly released,” the order said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The end of bail reform? Trump orders cash bond for anyone arrested