Two Washington officials on Friday began pushing back against President Donald Trump’s use of federal law enforcement in the District, even as the mayor and most of the city council remained quiet.
Meanwhile, an administration official didn’t rule out further measures including federalizing the local police.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat and the District’s non-voting representative in Congress, called the use of federal agencies “a disproportionate overreaction that's offensive to D.C.," and At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson called it an “extreme” move.
The comments come amid silence from other local officials, a void that is at odds with five years ago, when D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the city council denounced the White House’s threat to federalize the local police following the murder of George Floyd.
The mayor’s office declined to comment Friday. All but two members of the 13-person D.C. Council either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries.
Bowser’s office was given a heads up by the White House before Thursday’s announcement and had been in communication with them, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The mayor’s office declined to comment on the specifics.
Trayon White, who on Friday was sworn in as commissioner for parts of Southeast D.C., including Anacostia and Congress Heights, said that “We don’t need federal interference,” adding that it has only “crippled Washington D.C. and the progress we’ve made over the last four decades.”
Southeast resident and Council Chair Phil Mendelson, in a statement, did not address Trump’s move but defended the city’s progress on stamping out crime. Trump’s announcement came after an aide was attacked in Northwest D.C.
“Crime in the District is at the lowest rates we’ve seen in 30 years,” Mendelson, a longtime city official, said. “The Council will continue to proactively look at ways we can improve our laws and support our officers. But prosecutorial declinations remain high, and the police closing of cases with arrests remains low, and both will make the biggest difference in deterring crime.”
Still, the silence from most members comes as District officials contend with competing interests: defending the city’s right to rule itself and not angering the president, backed by a GOP-controlled Congress, who could exert significant authority over the local budget and laws.
“I have to think twice about some of the things I say,” Henderson, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said. “And I have to think twice about how much we push back … In the first Trump administration, Democrats controlled the House. We had Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi who had our back. That doesn’t really exist anymore.”
Trump on Thursday night announced he would send federal law enforcement into Washington. for a seven-day operation, which, according to a White House statement, could be extended as needed. An administration official confirmed the patrol will “mostly happen overnight when crime spikes,” adding, “officers will be highly visible.”
On Friday, a White House official did not rule out more dramatic moves, including federalizing city police, which the president has the authority to do under the Home Rule Act. The act gives him the power to take over Washington’s police force on a temporary basis when “special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes.”
“We won’t get ahead of the president, but all options are on the table and the operation may change as time goes on and public safety needs evolve,” the White House official said.
The effort is being led by the Park Police, with support from Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, among other agencies.
Trump controls over tens of thousands of federal law enforcement officers who work in the Washington area for federal agencies, including the FBI, the Marshals Service, the Secret Service, the Park Police and others. Trump deployed many of those agencies in June 2020 to clear Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Park, across from the White House.
Some of those federal agencies routinely operate throughout the district — unlike in the states, where federal law-enforcement presence is not as pervasive.
Henderson said her office spent the day trying to communicate with the mayor’s office “about what this means.”
“We’re still trying to assess what the information from the White House means in reality of action on the ground,” Henderson said. She added that she was given no advance warning.
“It would be helpful if folks from the White House actually wanted to talk, and truly talk about where some of the challenges and pain points in this partnership are when it comes to public safety.”
The White House official told POLITICO that since Trump’s March executive order — which established a federal task force on crime prevention in the city — White House officials and Bowser’s office have been in frequent communication.
“Bowser’s office has been looped in on efforts to Make DC Safe Again since the March Executive Order, and the efforts have been highly productive,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to share internal deliberations.
Trump’s move to deploy federal forces is an extension of his long-running framing of the district as progressive and lawless. It is one he renewed Tuesday after the DOGE team member was assaulted over the weekend. Staffer Edward Coristine was attacked by nearly a dozen minors in Northwest Washington after they attempted to hijack his vehicle, according to a police report of the incident.
“We want to have a great, safe capital,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “And we’re gonna have it. And that includes cleanliness and it includes other things.”
In fact, violent crime in the city hit a 30-year low last year, according to MPD data. On Tuesday, Trump acolyte and D.C. District Attorney Jeanine Pirro agreed, telling police officers in the district “crime is going down in DC.”
Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia said the real threat was Trump’s incursion into local policing.
“This threat to DC should concern everyone across the country, as DC can be viewed as a testing ground,” she said.
Hopkins said Trump is attempting to use “one incident as an excuse for a broad overreach of power.”
Even armed with the falling crime rate, local officials have little ability to push back on Trump’s federal involvement.
“DC doesn’t have legal power,” said Alex Dodds, a campaign director for Free DC, a progressive campaign that advocates for home rule in the nation’s capital. “The federal government has an enormous amount of legal power, so there’s not much for them to stand on.”
Trump has even said he might get involved in local real estate decisions. He threatened to withhold federal support for the Washington Commanders’ plan to move its stadium to its former home at RFK Stadium. Trump last month said he would block the deal for the city’s NFL team if it did not restore its old name, the Washington Redskins, which was widely considered offensive to Native Americans.
Last week, the D.C. Council approved the RFK deal with a 9-3 vote in favor.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
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