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WASHINGTON (CN) — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday that she had not yet asked President Donald Trump for an assurance that he would not try to extend his control over the capital city’s police force after a legal deadline expires next month.
The president’s monthlong takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, under the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act, is set to elapse on Sept. 11, but Trump has already said he’ll need control for longer to address what his administration calls out-of-control crime in the capital.
At a Wednesday news conference, Bowser told reporters the issue didn’t come up in her recent meetings with Trump. She appeared to suggest she discussed the topic with Attorney General Pam Bondi, but didn’t say if the White House would give the MPD back.
“That was not something that I discussed with the president, but with the Attorney General Bondi, and we will continue to work on how our emergency operations center and the federal task force can work together,” Bowser said.
But the D.C. mayor later opened the door for a protracted federal presence in the nation’s capital.
“We will be prepared to take advantage of additional federal officers to focus on the beautification, to support the federal task force,” she said. “When that time period expires, we will be prepared as a city.”
On Aug. 11, Trump invoked a provision of the Home Rule Act allowing the White House to federalize D.C. police for 30 days with congressional notice. He also mobilized the National Guard and sent in hundreds of federal agents, framing the move as a crackdown on crime. But some D.C. lawmakers and residents called it an unjust occupation of a city with little political representation.
And as police set up checkpoints in D.C. streets and masked federal agents detained delivery drivers, Trump argued that he would need control of the city’s law enforcement for longer than the law allows.
“We’re going to be asking for extensions on that,” he said at a news conference earlier this month. “Long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days.”
The president further contended that he could secure such an extension unilaterally, without congressional approval, if he declared a “national emergency.”
Bowser, for her part, has staked out a relatively moderate position on Trump’s takeover of her city. The mayor pointed out on Wednesday that crime in the capital city has indeed decreased since the National Guard and federal agents became a visible presence in D.C. — specifically targeting carjackings, which she said had plummeted by roughly 87% compared to the same period last year.
“We know that when carjackings go down, when use of guns goes down, when homicidal robberies go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer,” she said. “This surge has been important to us for that reason.”
However, Bowser later suggested that a staffing surge to MPD could have effected a similar outcome.
The White House has highlighted the police and federal agents’ results: more than 1,100 arrests, 120 illegal firearms seized, and a two-week stretch without a reported homicide — a streak that ended this week. But while Trump officials argue federal control is making D.C. safer, many residents have protested what they call a government occupation.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered last week in D.C.’s U Street neighborhood — a historically Black area and subject of intense enforcement since the federal takeover — to protest the Trump administration and demand statehood for the capital. Similar protests have spread across the city, with some demonstrators even shadowing federal agents on patrol.
Bowser said Wednesday that the reaction from D.C. residents was what she would have expected, saying that the demonstrations have been “very focused on autonomy.”
“I think D.C. residents are defending their city,” she said. “They are promoting their city, and they are giving me ideas, talking to me and trusting my judgment.”
By the time Trump’s legal mandate over D.C. police expires, members of Congress will have returned from their August recess. Democrats have introduced a measure aimed at heading off a possible extension of the president’s capital takeover — but it appears unlikely that Congress’ Republican majority would support such an effort.
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