Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, on Monday called President Trump’s announced takeover of the city’s police force “unsettling and unprecedented” but appeared resigned to cooperate with it, stressing at a news conference that there was little she could do to block the move.
She repeatedly characterized Mr. Trump’s federalization of the city’s police force, under an emergency declaration to combat a crime “crisis” despite falling violent crime rates, as a workable extension of the oftentimes collaborative relationship between federal and local law enforcement entities tasked to the nation’s capital.
Ms. Bowser’s tone was strikingly diplomatic, an approach in keeping with the more muted posture she has adopted toward Mr. Trump during his second term, as compared to more fiery statements during his first term opposing similar threats to the city’s limited autonomy.
The “plain language” of the city’s home rule charter, she explained, authorized the president to declare a public safety emergency and request the city to defer to the directions of the federal government. And, she added, “it says the mayor shall comply with those requests.”
Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, which gave D.C. the power to elect its own local government but left Congress with ultimate power over the city’s laws and budget, Mr. Trump can declare a state of emergency to assert control over local law enforcement for 30 days.
“We have a responsibility to support the executive order and one of the roles I have is to ensure that we work very collaboratively with our federal partners,” she said, later adding: “Our relationship with our federal partners is not new, we do this on a daily basis.”
But despite her calm demeanor, it was clear that Ms. Bowser viewed Mr. Trump’s announcement as fundamentally different than anything the city has experienced in decades.
“I don’t want to minimize what was said, and I don’t want too minimize the intrusion on our autonomy,” she told reporters.
She dismissed Mr. Trump’s assertions of a crime-ridden D.C. as fundamentally divorced from fact, rattling off statistics indicating that the city had actually reversed a crime wave that rose on the heels the Covid-19 pandemic and crested in 2023. She argued that Mr. Trump was fully aware of those details.
“In every conversation I have with him, we’re always briefing the president on our progress,” she said. In their first meeting after Mr. Trump’s November re-election, she added, “we went over the crime trends, we went over how we’re seeing decreases, so the president is read in on our efforts.”
The city’s murder rate, while higher than it was 15 years ago, has been dropping over the past 18 months and is now where it was before the pandemic. The number of carjackings has also dropped precipitously after a steep spike in 2023. City officials say that violent crime generally is at a 30-year low, and while the F.B.I. measures violent crime somewhat differently than the district, the recent trend in the city is clear.
Ms. Bowser said that city leaders would “continue to look for ways to make our city safe,” praising the local police force for their efforts. She also insisted that Chief Pamela Smith would remain in charge of the D.C. police, working with the administration while the force answers to the Department of Justice, despite Mr. Trump’s suggestion that there would be a change in leadership.
Still, Ms. Bowser was careful not to express direct anger at Mr. Trump in her own words, referring instead to a statement from Brian Schwalb, the D.C. attorney general, to communicate her umbrage at Mr. Trump’s move.
On Monday, Mr. Schwalb put out a statement calling Mr. Trump’s takeover “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” adding that city officials “are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents.”
Ms. Bowser instead directed her most palpable frustrations toward Congress, pointing out that lawmakers had opportunities in recent years to put more power in the hands of Washington residents and its mayor, but had chosen not to.
Ms. Bowser, like other past leaders of Washington, has been a staunch advocate for statehood, which would give the city the ability to govern itself and ensure that its residents had voting representation in Congress. In 2020 and 2021, the House of Representatives, then led by Democrats, passed bills that would have granted D.C. statehood, but neither passed the Senate.
Ms. Bowser also pointed out that lawmakers had an opportunity to put the D.C. National Guard under the mayor’s authority, and didn’t. When asked Monday about Mr. Trump’s threats to deploy additional active duty military units beyond the National Guard to D.C., she said she did not believe it was legal “to use the American military against American citizens on American soil.”
Several Democrats said they planned to introduce bills or legislation to address Mr. Trump’s announcement and reverse its effects. They include Representative Jamie Raskin, whose Maryland district includes Washington suburbs, who said he would introduce a resolution to “reverse this plainly ridiculous state of local emergency” and restore local control to D.C.’s government.
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s nonvoting delegate, and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland have also said they would reintroduce bills that would repeal the president’s authority to take temporary control of the D.C. police and that would give the city’s mayor authority over the D.C. National Guard.
These measures face an uphill climb to pass a Republican-controlled Congress, particularly given a 60-vote threshold needed to pass most legislation.
NEW YORK TIMES