While the Democrats slam the repression of Trump’s DC, the mayor Bowser travels a fine line

In the end, the offer of President Donald Trump was the one Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser could not refuse.

In Mobilize the DC National Guard, Press federal agents in the urban police and take control of the Metropolitan Police Department – all in the name of the fight against violent crimes in the national capital – Trump invited Bowser to cooperate with his administration.

The law, federal money and a long -standing threat to repeal government autonomy in the city have lined up behind him, giving Bowser that a former assistant described as having a rare ability to “withdraw emotion” from political and political calculations, other choice than to comply.

“What I am focusing on is the federal push and how to make the most of the additional agent’s support that we have,” Bowser told journalists after a meeting on Tuesday with the Attorney General Pam Bondi.

This does not mean that Bowser is delighted with the position in which she is, actually putting the police in her city to a president with whom she had a complicated relationship since her first mandate. During a videoconference with Washington, DC, community leaders on Tuesday evening, Bowser described Trump’s maneuvers as an “authoritarian push”.

But overall, his response was much more measured than those of Democrats – both in the DC region and on a national scale – which, less congested by the practical consequences of a fight with the president, repeatedly hammered Trump’s decision and him.

“The Trump administration has always violated the law and violated the Constitution to continue the personal and political agenda of a budding king,” said the minority of the minority of the House Hakeem Jeffries, Dn.y. “We stick to the residents of the District of Columbia and reject this unjustified takeover as illegitimate.”

At a press conference on Monday announcing his assertion of power by a decree, Trump described Bowser as “a good person who tried”, adding that he acted because “she had many chances”.

As Bowser noted at a press conference on Monday, the city and federal agencies have a long history of work together to plan, execute and protect special events in the city, including during the two terms of Trump. Both are also largely aligned with the aim of bringing Washington commanders back to the city from the suburbs of Maryland, and Bowser attended a White House press conference On the subject in May.

But Bowser criticized Trump in the summer of 2020 when he deployed federal agents of the application of laws in the national capital and activated the National Guard of DC to fight against demonstrations against police violence. These forces, including the American Park Police, were used to violently break a peaceful demonstration outside Lafayette Square, a few steps from the White House, opening a path for Trump to go to a neighboring church to address the media.

In a letter to Trump in June 2020, before horse officers moved away from the park demonstrators, Bowser accused him of having “ignited” and “added to the grievances” of the demonstrators, creating a more dangerous dynamic.

In order to push federal agents and guards in the streets, Trump declared an emergency in Washington, DC, even as a rate of violent crimes in the city fell.

Bowser is disadvantaged at a time when his administration is fighting to bring the congress and Trump to reverse the course on a law promulgated this year frozen $ 1 billion in city money. Chamber Mike Johnson, R-La., Said in May that he would move “as quickly as possible” to repair what some Republicans have said they were an error in the drafting of the law. The senate has transmitted a change Earlier this year, but the Chamber, which is out of session for its August recreation, made no decision to sending to the President for his signature.

Beyond that, federal law clearly gives the President the power to assume control of the Washington Metropolitan Police Service for 30 days when he declared an emergency, as he did this week, and to activate the National Guard of DC.

The white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that around 850 Federal Agents of the Application of Laws were spread throughout the city on Monday evening and made 23 arrests for accusations ranging from homicide and drug stimulation crimes on an reckless price and conduct.

Leavitt did not respond to a request for comments on Trump’s relationship with Bowser, any more than the city spokesperson was not submitted to Susana Castillo.

Justin Bibb, the mayor of Cleveland and the president of Democratic Mayors Association, said in an interview with NBC News that municipal leaders across the country were watching what is happening in Washington – in Trump’s heels activating the California National Guard to help immigration to Los Angeles – with suspicious eyes.

“Absolutely, we are concerned,” he said. “I want to be very clear on something: we don’t want the national guard in our cities.”

BIBB also defended Bowser’s management of Trump’s repression this week, stressing the unusual situation that Bowser is in the leaders of other major cities.

“She understands and recognizes that she is in a unique position where there is no real state of state of state at DC, and her autonomy can be limited, but ultimately, she will continue to do the work she has done to reduce violent crimes, with or without the support of Donald Trump,” he said.

Trump has publicly thought of the return of the limited powers of the local government of Washington to federal control. Since 1973, the city has worked within the framework of a “Home Rule” charter granted by the Congress which allows residents to elect a mayor and a municipal council. But ultimately, the Constitution gives the congress the power to determine the laws of the national capital. Although residents of Washington, DC, pay federal taxes, the city has no representation of voting in the congress.

Refusal to criticize Trump directly, Bowser hoarsely nodded to the city’s subordinate position during his Monday press conference.

“He has prerogatives in DC, unlike elsewhere in the country,” she said about Trump. “There are things which, when a city is not a state and not entirely autonomous and has no senators, that the federal government can do.”