Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard in the nation’s capital “unsettling and unprecedented” as she sought to reassert the city government’s control over its police department.
Bowser told reporters on Monday that the police department’s organizational structure hasn’t changed, pushing back on the narrative painted by the president at a news conference earlier in the day of a federal takeover of the city.
Trump, who has frequently disparaged crime rates in Washington, said the city has been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of violent youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people.”
Bowser defended the police department’s efforts, citing a downward trend in crime incidents from a 2023 spike, and downplayed the “so-called emergency” that catalyzed Trump’s order.
“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised,” Bowser said. “I can say to D.C. residents that we will continue to operate our government in a way that makes you proud."
The mayor said the city will comply with Trump’s order and is expected to continue meetings with federal law enforcement officials later on Monday to plan coordination. But she made clear that while her office would coordinate with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Terry Cole, who Trump appointed as federal commissioner to Washington police, the city’s police officers still reported to her.
“Nothing about our organizational chart has changed, and nothing in the executive order would indicate otherwise. So the chief of police reports through the deputy mayor to the mayor of the District of Columbia, and the two people, I think, that were identified in the presser report to Attorney General Bondi,” she said.
A previously-unused provision of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act allows Trump to take over Washington’s police department for up to 30 days if he notifies certain heads of congressional committees. The act also established broader Congressional oversight of the city’s government.
Bowser said the arrangement forces her to comply with federal orders, but noted repeatedly that granting statehood for Washington — an issue city leaders have championed for decades — would likely prevent actions like this.
“If people are concerned about the president being able to move the National Guard into our city, the time to do that would have been when the Congress had a bill that it could have given control of the D.C. National Guard to D.C.,” she said. “So there are things that, when a city is not a state, and not fully autonomous, and doesn't have senators, that the federal government can do.”
Some of the city’s police officers appear to be breaking from Bowser in support of Trump’s order. Gregg Pemberton, chair of the Washington police union, called the federal intervention into the city’s police “a critical stopgap.”
“We stand with the President in recognizing that Washington, DC, cannot continue on this trajectory. Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits,” Pemberton said in a statement.
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