The mayor of Washington DC called Trump’s federal takeover of the city an ‘authoritarian push’ as National Guard troops flooded the capital.
Mayor Muriel Bowser criticized the Trump’s ambitious crime crackdown on Tuesday night while fielding questions from citizens during a digital town hall.
Bowser was asked how faith groups could help support the community when she urged residents to protect the city.
She responded: ‘This is a time when the community needs to jump in. To protect our city, to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule.
‘Get to the other side of this guy and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push.’
Bowser’s latest comments were significantly more forceful than her her previous cautious approach to Trump’s plans. She had described the federal takeover on Monday as ‘unprecedented’ but also conceded she wasn’t ‘totally surprised’.
Camo-clad troops with the National Guard started arrived into the capital at around 8 pm on Tuesday in a bid by the White House to curb violent crime.
Military Humvees parked on the National Mall on Tuesday evening with officers standing close by.
Other officers, who look to be from another agency, could be seen stopping and searching vehicles, as well as speaking with residents.
The New York Times reported that the troops stayed in the area for two hours before leaving after what a nearby master sergeant described as a ‘presence patrol’.
Pentagon documents seen by The Washington Post indicated Trump has been considering plans for a ‘Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force.’ The force would be prepared to deploy 600 boots on the ground within an hour anywhere in the US if given the green light.
On Monday, the president teased this type of action could extend to other major cities including New York City and Chicago.
‘This will go further,’ the President said. ‘We’re going to take back our capital … and then we’ll look at other cities also,’ before he singled out Chicago, LA, New York, Baltimore, and Oakland.
FBI Director Kash Patel said that so far 23 people were arrested in the city with help from partners in a post to his X.
According to Patel one person was arrested on a search warrant for a previous murder charge while others were nabbed for unlawful possession of firearms.
Patel added that multiple people were also arrested for having outstanding warrants for DUI, while one was taken in for violating a restraining order.
‘These are just a few examples we are just getting started. When you let good cops be cops they can clean up our streets and do it fast’, he added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that around 850 officers and agents had fanned out across the city on Monday and made the arrests.
The move by Trump was announced on Monday, the president it was to ‘rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor’.
Flanked by cabinet members Attorney General Pam Bondi, US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Interior Director Doug Burgum, Trump said he would instruct federal law enforcement officials to deploy aggressive tactics against the city’s worst offenders.
‘You spit and we hit and we can hit real hard,’ he said.
The president also vowed to clear out camps of homeless people from Washington, DC parks and public lands.
Federal law officials began their citywide deployment over the weekend, ramping up a public display of force that was seen immediately by residents.
‘Our Capital City has been overtaken by violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore,’ he said. ‘We’re not going to take it.’
Trump also highlighted recent horrific crimes in the city including a 21-year-old congressional intern who was hit by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting and killed.
As well as a former Trump administration official murdered in a carjacking, and a Democratic congressman who was carjacked at gunpoint.
Trump also recalled a ‘demented lunatic’ that stabbed an aide to Sen. Rand Paul in 2023 and a 3-year-old girl who was shot and killed near the Capitol.
The president’s claim that crime has spike has been contested by the Bowser, who has pointed to stats that show violent crime has decreased in the District since 2023.
Violent crime in DC is down 26 percent this year and in 2024 reached a 30-year low, with 190 homicides in 2024 compared to 274 in 2023, according to metro police department statistics.
‘The Mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive,’ Trump said in a Sunday night Truth Social post.
In April, Bowser announced the creation of a special police force specifically to tackle underage crime.
In an interview on MSNBC Sunday, she pushed back on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller saying that D.C. was ‘more violent than Baghdad.’
If Trump’s ‘Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force’ was brought in troops would be split between the east and west of the Mississippi River at military bases in Alabama and Arizona.
National Guard officials reportedly began drafting the plan between late July and early August.
Traditionally, the National Guard has fast-response teams prepared for their individual states; however, Trump’s new proposal calls for transporting troops between different states.
The documents estimate the earliest the program could be created is the fiscal year of 2027 with funding coming from the Pentagon’s annual budget.
Earlier this year, Trump deployed over 5,000 National Guard troops along with active-duty Marines to the Los Angeles area to quell protests denouncing his administration’s immigration policies.
