Mayor Muriel Bowser instead wants the District of Columbia to become the 51st state.
WASHINGTON—Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke out on Feb. 20 against President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the federal government should assume control of the city she governs.
“Of course, it’s frustrating, and we think it’s also wrong,” Bowser said at a press conference.
Bowser’s response comes one day after Trump’s comments, made amid criticisms of the high rate of crime, graffiti, and homelessness in the United States’ capital city.
“I think we should take over Washington, D.C. … I think that we should run it strong, run it with law and order, make it flawlessly beautiful,” he told reporters on Air Force One on Feb. 19.
The District of Columbia is currently governed by the mayor and its City Council, whose legislative and budget decisions are subject to the oversight of Congress. This form of government was established by the Home Rule Act, passed in 1973.
To wrest control of the city from the mayor would take another act of Congress. On Feb. 6, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) introduced legislation to do just that.
The Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act would end Home Rule in the District, one year after its passage.
Bowser said she is not sure if the legislation would make it through both chambers of Congress, despite Republican majorities.
“Look, most of the people in the Congress know this: that we are a well-run city. We balance our budgets. We have triple-A bond rating. We have the No. 1 park system. We have the fastest-improving urban school district.”
While she wouldn’t go into specifics about her conversations with Trump, Bowser said she had previously expressed to him that she believed the current system of governance was best, and that she walked away from those meetings with the impression that his main concerns were “infrastructure and homelessness and—to a lesser degree—public safety.”
“There is really not a lot of space between us on focusing on holding violent offenders accountable in the District of Columbia,” she said.
She also noted that when Trump departed the district in 2020, the city was still dealing with the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think he still has a picture of COVID-era D.C., and he returns to a D.C. that is … very much a post-COVID environment where the issues with homeless encampments is much diminished—not completely solved—but much diminished from the D.C. that he left,” she said.
She said the city has cut the number of homeless encampments in half since last year.
Trump and Bowser’s comments highlight an ongoing tug-of-war between those who share the president’s view, and those who—like Bowser—want the district to become the 51st state, with full autonomy.
“The only way we’re not in this position is when we become a state,” she said.
“As long as we have limited Home Rule in this city—yes you have elected officials—but as long as we have limited Home Rule, we’re always vulnerable to the whims of the Congress or a president.”
