WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mayor Muriel Bowser is walking a political tightrope as she celebrates a sharp drop in crime while challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of armed federal troops across the city amid protesters condemning the federal takeover.
New police data shows violent crime in the District has fallen in the weeks since federal troops have been in the city.
“Since the beginning of this federal surge of officers, it has always been my focus on—we didn’t ask for any federal officers, we’re driving crime down—but while they’re here, how can we most strategically use them to accelerate the work that MPD has done?”
Mayor Bowser said at a recent news conference. She added that the increase in federal law enforcement contributed to “an extreme reduction in carjackings” and a decrease in gun crimes and homicides.
The Trump administration’s move to station nearly 1,900 National Guard troops and federal officers on D.C. streets has ignited a political firestorm. Protesters call it an occupation, city leaders say it violates local control, and civil rights groups warn it sets a dangerous precedent for federal overreach.
Mayor Bowser, who was not consulted about the military buildup, wrote a letter to city residents after the deployment. “It has been an unsettling and unprecedented week in our city. Over the course of a week, the surge in federal law enforcement across D.C. has created waves of anxiety.
I was born one year before Home Rule became law, and while our autonomy has been challenged before, our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.”
The contrasting messages—celebrating a safer city while decrying federal muscle—highlight the unusual position of the nation’s capital, where local authority is often at the mercy of national politics.
Political observers say Mayor Bowser’s stance reflects the delicate balance she must strike: reassuring residents about public safety while making clear the city will not cede its autonomy.
“Mayor Bowser has been calling for more officers for the city, saying the city was actually operating with fewer than the number that they would like to have,” Anthony Muhammad, president of the Citizens Advisory Council 7D told The Final Call.
“Now that they have gotten additional officers, the mayor is going along with the extra troops and saying crime has been reduced since this so-called takeover has taken place.”
“It’s always a push and pull when something like this is being done. Some dislike it, and others like it. It seems that those who like it are the ones who are winning,” he said.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit Sept. 4 challenging the president’s use of the National Guard. “No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” Atty. Schwalb wrote in the lawsuit, reported AP.
President Trump has said Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans are other cities he is considering dispatching federal troops to in order to address crime and illegal immigration, despite pushback from local and state officials and residents in those areas.