Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) reportedly left the city on Thursday amid President Trump’s decision to bring in the National Guard amid his crackdown on crime in the District.
Bowser is visiting Martha’s Vineyard for a family commitment and is set to return to D.C. on Friday, according to reports from Fox 5 DC.
City residents have been protesting the increased presence of law enforcement, and city leaders have condemned Trump’s executive order, which renders the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) subordinate to White House control.
Local homeless encampments are expected to be cleared out starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, according to an email from the city’s Interagency Council on Homelessness reviewed by Street Sense, a Washington outlet dedicated to the city’s unhoused population.
“This is federal overreach and not making DC safer. It’s about power. It’s about instilling fear in cities,” D.C. City Council member Brianne Nadeau (D) wrote in a statement on the social platform X.
“Our Ward 1 community is standing together & looking out for one another. The very heart & soul of our great city is at stake,” she added.
Trump said federal agents were dispatched to combat high crime rates in the nation’s capital, slamming Bowser’s leadership in the process.
“We know how the feelings of crime and perceptions of crime are sometimes different than seeing numbers go down — and we’ve seen numbers go down, let me be clear,” Bowser said after a Tuesday meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“Over the last two years we have reached a 30-year low [in] violent crime. What the chief and all of us hear from time to time though is that we don’t want any crime,” she added.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Comments