Trump flips on Bowser, threatens new D.C. takeover after she rejects ICE partnership

“This has never been about public safety, but about advancing Trump’s promised incarceration and deportation campaign on Black and brown Americans,” said Markus Batchelor, political director at People For the American Way.

President Donald Trump on Monday railed against D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and threatened to declare another federal takeover in the nation’s capital.

In a late-night post on Truth Social, Trump called out Bowser for informing his administration that D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department would no longer cooperate with ICE on immigration enforcement.

“It has been a beautiful thing to watch but, now, under pressure from the Radical Left Democrats, Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has presided over this violent criminal takeover of our Capital for years, has informed the Federal Government that the Metropolitan Police Department will no longer cooperate with ICE in removing and relocating dangerous illegal aliens,” the president wrote.

“If I allowed this to happen, CRIME would come roaring back,” added Trump, who, in addition to deploying the National Guard, declared a “crime emergency” in D.C. on Aug. 11, activating a provision in the D.C. Home Rule Act that authorizes the federal government to use D.C. local police for federal purposes.

Though the federal emergency expired on Sept. 10, President Trump is now threatening to retake control of D.C. just days later.

“To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!” he wrote.

Critics, citing record-low crime data in the nation’s capital, slammed Trump’s federal emergency in D.C. as political theater and an attempt to show dominance over an American city that is majority Black and brown and led by a Black mayor. Democrats, in particular, accused the president of flirting with authoritarian behavior in an attempt to normalize his actions and replicate them in other American cities.

Last week, Trump announced that he was sending the National Guard to Memphis, a majority Black city in the red state of Tennessee.

Trump praised his federal takeover in D.C., claiming his actions have resulted in the city going from “one of the most dangerous and murder ridden cities in the U.S.A., and even around the World, to one of the safest – In just a few weeks.” He wrote, “The ‘place’ is absolutely booming, with restaurants, stores, and businesses packed and, for the first time in decades, virtually NO CRIME.”

“Over and over again, Trump keeps pushing this false narrative that he’s making D.C. safer. He’s wrong. D.C. is not the dangerous place he describes, and his federal overreach — deploying the Guard and ICE into our neighborhoods — has actually hurt us,” said Jamal Holtz, president of D.C. Young Democrats.

He told theGrio, “Restaurants are suffering, reservations are down, and people don’t want to dine out in a city that feels like a militarized zone. His actions are killing our city and our economy blindly.”

Holtz said that Trump’s behavior is “not just reckless, it’s lawless.” He continued, “As a community, we should all be deeply concerned about what that means for our democracy and needing members of Congress to stand up and protect it at all costs.”

He added, “The residents of D.C., our mayor, and council get to dictate what safety looks like in D.C., not Trump.”

Markus Batchelor, a D.C. native and political director at People For the American Way, said Trump’s threat to assert his dominance over D.C. again proves that his crime emergency was never about crime but about executing his immigration agenda. The White House reportedly set an annual goal of 1 million deportations.

“Trump is proving what D.C. residents have known the whole time: this takeover of DC isn’t about crime, it’s about control over diverse Democratic cities he doesn’t like,” Batchelor told theGrio.

“This has never been about public safety, but about advancing Trump’s promised incarceration and deportation campaign on Black and brown Americans. D.C. is just a pilot program for a national effort,” he asserted.

He added, “This should make clear to D.C. leaders that there’s no use in trying to pacify a fascist who can’t be satisfied. He will use whatever lever he has to finish the job. No more concessions when real lives hang in the balance. It’s time to stand firm and fight back.”

Though Bowser has worked relatively well with the Trump administration throughout the federal emergency, even touting its impact on driving down crime, she has been critical of masked ICE agents “terrorizing” D.C. communities.

“I am devastated by people living in fear,” said Bowser.