District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser listens as President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce that the 2027 NFL Draft will be held on the National Mall, in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, May 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. broke her silence Sunday in response to President Trump’s threats to take federal control of the nation’s capital. Bowser defended the District’s control of its police department, expressed concern over the deployment of the D.C. National Guard, and celebrated a two-year drop in violent crime countering White House claims of out-of-control violence.
Last week, Trump directed federal law enforcement agencies — including the U.S. Park Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Marshals Service, among others — to increase their presence in D.C. after a former White House staffer was assaulted in an attempted carjacking. A White House official, not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, confirmed nearly 450 federal officers were deployed in the District Saturday night.
On Sunday, the president promised in a social media post to “make our Capital safer” by removing the homeless and jailing criminals, with a plan to be announced at 10 a.m. on Monday.
“I suspect that his announcement is that he is surging federal law enforcement, which he’s talked about,” Bowser said Sunday during an interview on MSNBC — her first since Trump’s federal take over threats. “He may talk about even larger numbers or longer periods of time.”
Bowser said she will continue to work with the president on their “shared priorities” of making D.C. a beautiful and safe city. But the mayor said what the city really needs is more federal prosecutors, judges, and repairs to parks and buildings.
She also took issue with recent statements from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who called the nation’s capital “more violent than Baghdad.”
“Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false,” Bowser said.
They mayor did acknowledge a crime spike in 2023, but said there had been a steep, two-year drop in violence since then. District crime data show violent crime is down 26% when compared to last year.
“We’re going to keep talking to the president, working with his people on the issues that are high priority for him,” Bowser said. “Now, if the priority is to show force in an American city, we know he can do that here. But it won’t be because there’s a spike in crime.”
Trump has threatened to deploy the National Guard in D.C., but the force told NPR Sunday that it had not yet been activated. Bowser said she’s not in favor of their deployment.
“They’re not law enforcement officials,” Bowser said. “So I’m concerned about that. And I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our guard.”
Trump deployed the National Guard in D.C. during the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd. And two months ago, Trump sent in troops to Los Angeles amid demonstrations against the president’s ramped up immigration enforcement.
The president has also toyed with the idea of taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department, telling reporters Wednesday it was an “option on the table.” But Bowser denied this was a realistic possibility.
“There are very specific things in our law that would allow the president to have more control over our police department,” Bowser said. “None of those conditions exist in our city right now.”
City law allows the president to take control of D.C. police if “special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes.”
On Sunday, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith ordered a juvenile curfew in the Navy Yard neighborhood — just south of Capitol Hill and home to Nationals Park. In the order, Smith said late-night gatherings in the neighborhood pose “a risk of substantial harm to public safety.”
Under the authority of a recently passed law, D.C. police will ban the gathering of nine or more juveniles in the designated area between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. The curfew begins Sunday evening and runs until Wednesday.
D.C. has a city-wide juvenile curfew in place from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. lasting through August 31.
In a separate post Sunday, Trump said Bowser “is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive.”
