‘Unsettling And Unprecedented’: D.C. Mayor Slams Trump’s Takeover, Says Crime Is Dropping

Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser responded after President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he was deploying the National Guard to clean up the capital. The mayor objected to the move and argued that Trump’s view of crime in D.C. is based on statistics from 2020.

Bowser held a press conference Monday afternoon to discuss how the city would respond to Trump’s order to federalize D.C. She acknowledged that violent crime spiked during the COVID pandemic and immediately after, but then claimed that new laws squashed the rising crime and “reversed” the violent crime outbreak. Bowser then said that Trump’s announcement was “unsettling and unprecedented.”

“I believe that the president’s view of D.C. is shaped by his COVID-era experience during his first term,” Bowser said. “And it is true that those were challenging times related to some issues. It is also true that we experienced a crime spike post-COVID, but we worked quickly to put laws in place and tactics that got violent offenders off our streets and gave our police officers more tools.”

“Which is why we have seen a huge decrease in crime because of those efforts. We have been able to reverse that 2023 crime spike,” Bowser said, adding that current crime statistics published by the Metropolitan Police Department show the nation’s capital is at a 30-year low in violent crime.

“We’re not satisfied. We haven’t taken our foot off the gas, and we continue to look for ways to make our city safer,” Bowser continued.

.@MayorBowser on President Trump federalizing DC police: “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.” pic.twitter.com/r9TU87KUp7

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 11, 2025

The White House said on Monday that in 2024, D.C. saw “the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country — nearly six times higher than New York City and also higher than Atlanta, Chicago, and Compton.”

After saying that Trump had the authority to declare an emergency and federalize law enforcement in D.C., Bowser pushed for statehood for the district.

“We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me and many, many Washingtonians before me advocate for the full statehood of the District of Columbia,” Bowser said. “We are American citizens. Our families go to war. We pay taxes, and we uphold the responsibilities of citizenship. 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.”

The White House wrote bluntly on Monday, “If Washington, D.C., was a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the nation.”

The Trump administration has also pointed to a Washington, D.C., police commander being placed under investigation for allegedly changing crime statistics. That investigation was announced shortly after the commander filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief, and after the police union accused the Metropolitan Police Department of falsifying crime stats to make it appear as if the city had seen a drop in violent crime, NBC 4 Washington reported.

Mayor Bowser admitted that Trump has the power to take control of law enforcement in D.C., promising that local authorities will coordinate with the federal government. Trump announced on Monday that he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and declaring a public emergency. The move allows him to place the D.C. Police Department under the control of the Justice Department, The Daily Wire previously reported.