--- title: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Calls Trump's City Takeover "Unsettling" | TIME description: President Donald Trump announced Monday he was temporarily putting the Washington, D.C. police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard on the streets of the nation's capitol, a striking move taken over the objections of local leaders, who say Trump is exaggerating the city's crime problems. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that crime was down not just from a post-pandemic peak in 2023, but from 2019 levels prior to the pandemic. canonical: https://time.com/video/YxiAIc49/ og:title: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Calls Trump's City Takeover "Unsettling" og:description: President Donald Trump announced Monday he was temporarily putting the Washington, D.C. police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard on the streets of the nation's capitol, a striking move taken over the objections of local leaders, who say Trump is exaggerating the city's crime problems. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that crime was down not just from a post-pandemic peak in 2023, but from 2019 levels prior to the pandemic. og:url: https://time.com/video/YxiAIc49/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YxiAIc49/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Calls Trump's City Takeover "Unsettling" twitter:description: President Donald Trump announced Monday he was temporarily putting the Washington, D.C. police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard on the streets of the nation's capitol, a striking move taken over the objections of local leaders, who say Trump is exaggerating the city's crime problems. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that crime was down not just from a post-pandemic peak in 2023, but from 2019 levels prior to the pandemic. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YxiAIc49/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * U.S. # D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Calls Trump's City Takeover "Unsettling" > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Calls Trump's City Takeover "Unsettling" [Watch (HLS stream): D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Calls Trump's City Takeover "Unsettling"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YxiAIc49.m3u8) (3:44)  _Published 2025-08-12. President Donald Trump announced Monday he was temporarily putting the Washington, D.C. police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard on the streets of the nation's capitol, a striking move taken over the objections of local leaders, who say Trump is exaggerating the city's crime problems. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that crime was down not just from a post-pandemic peak in 2023, but from 2019 levels prior to the pandemic._ --- Aug 12, 2025 5:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Trump's Takeover of Washington Law Enforcement Begins After National Guard Troops Arrive](/video/7EtUNMsA/) ### Trump's Takeover of Washington Law Enforcement Begins After National Guard Troops Arrive ['It Is My Responsibility To Defend Our City.' D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on the City's Black Lives Matter Mural and President Trump's Tweets](/video/hSUwKchE/) ### 'It Is My Responsibility To Defend Our City.' D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on the City's Black Lives Matter Mural and President Trump's Tweets [TIME100 Talks with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ](/video/CtWkcQgR/) ### TIME100 Talks with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser --- ## Transcript Though we pay taxes. In fact, we pay more than most states per capita. We're not a state. We don't control the DC National Guard. We don't have senators or full autonomy. Limited home rule gives the federal government the ability to intrude on our autonomy in many ways. My message to residents is this we know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me in many, many Washingtonians before me advocate for full statehood for the District of Columbia. We are American citizens. Our families go to war. We pay taxes, and we uphold the responsibilities of citizenship. And while this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised. We have been advised, and we will continue to make this Uh, clear that this is needed in our city, that all law enforcement be identifiable by uniform, a badge, a jacket, so that people know that they are law enforcement? I did not know, um, that the request of MPD would be made. Um, I believed that they would announce that they were going to call up the National Guard. Uh, I had a one brief phone call, um, related to the National Guard issue over the weekend. Well, I what I would point you to is the home rule charter that gives the president the ability to determine the conditions of an emergency. Now, we could contest that, but, um, the authority is pretty broad. And so, like, if you wanted to say the most outrageous thing, one might say, well, I won't say that. It could be something very small. Like, I'm not saying that that's what he's doing, but it could be. And if he deems it and he puts the meat around it, and the argument around what he thinks is an emergency, uh, when we think of emergencies, it usually involves surges in crime. I'm going to work every day to make sure it's not a complete disaster. Let me put it that way. Um, and I think that with in Chief Smith's leadership and her expertise in both the federal space and the local space, um, we are going to do our level best to maintain, as the chief talked about, to maintain the trust that D.C. residents have in us. What could be a disaster, uh, is if we lose communities who won't call the police. That could be a disaster. Well, it would be a disaster if communities won't talk to the police, if a crime has been committed and could help solve that crime. That could be a disaster. Uh, it would be a disaster if people who aren't committing crimes are antagonized into committing crimes. That would be a disaster. So we're going to work, uh, every day, uh, to get to get this emergency, uh, put to an end, uh, the I'll call it the so-called emergency, uh, and continue to do our work. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"D.C. 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