Trump Says New FBI Headquarters Will Stay in Washington, DC

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday that a planned new multibillion-dollar FBI headquarters would stay in downtown Washington, D.C., is infuriating Maryland officials.

The Biden administration selected a Greenbelt, Maryland, site for a new FBI headquarters in 2023.

The choice of Greenbelt was made after a decade of discussion in Congress and site selection between competing suburban locations in Maryland and Virginia.

“They were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state,” Trump said during a presentation at the Justice Department. “But we’re going to stop it. We’re not going to let that happen.”

The Greenbelt site is about 10 miles from the District of Columbia.

Trump said he wants to use a new FBI headquarters as a centerpiece of his pledge to make Washington “crime free” and the “talk of the world.”

The new headquarters discussed previously in Congress would cost an estimated $4.5 billion and take at least a decade to build.

It would come with high-tech infrastructure now lacking in the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building located a short walk from the White House.

The General Services Administration calls the building “obsolete.” It opened in 1975, before the rise of the digital revolution.

Trump and newly installed FBI director Kash Patel agree a new headquarters is needed but not the proposed 61-acre site in Greenbelt.

“We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is,” Trump said.

Patel wants to redeploy FBI agents to offices across the nation, thereby reducing manpower needs in Washington. In addition to the J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI agents in Washington work out of at least eight leased offices. 

Maryand Gov. Wes Moore said in a joint statement with the state’s congressional delegation that they would renew their effort to keep the planned FBI headquarters in Greenbelt.

“The FBI needs a new headquarters that meets its mission,” their statement said. “The [General Services Administration] selected Greenbelt for the new, consolidated FBI headquarters based on the fact that it is the best site and it offers the lowest price and the best value to the taxpayers. What’s more, it ensures that the FBI can move to a facility that will finally meet its mission and security needs as soon as possible.”

The Greenbelt site is in Prince George’s County, where residents were hoping a new FBI headquarters would bring jobs and economic revitalization.

“Prince George’s County is clearly the best location to advance the Bureau’s mission,” said Maryland State Delegate Jazz Lewis (D) in a statement. “Trump continues to prove he has no idea how to govern or make smart decisions.”

The GSA recommended Greenbelt partly because the current headquarters represented a national security threat by its close proximity to other potential targets of terrorist attack in downtown Washington. Automobile traffic passes only a few feet from its main entrance on a heavily-traveled street.

Greenbelt also was chosen for the opportunity to significantly expand the size of the headquarters in less expensive real estate than downtown Washington. It is close to a public transit station and offers more space for parking.

When the current building opened in 1975, it was hailed by architects as a good example of the Brutalist style of design that uses heavy cement and angular shapes.

It has more than 2.8 million square feet of internal space, secure elevators and corridors, an open air courtyard and two wings connecting separate buildings.

More recently, it has been plagued by flooding of the basement, concrete chunks falling off the walls and outdated wiring that will not carry fiber optic communications well. Water has sometimes leaked from pipes into the courtyard.

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