Mayor Bowser says D.C. is not experiencing a crime spike after President Trump increased federal law enforcement in the city ahead of his announcement on Monday, according to MSNBC.
Bowser spoke on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” show Sunday morning about crime rates in D.C. after he threatened a federal takeover in the past week.
President Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he had an announcement to make on Monday where he will “stop violent crime in Washington, D.C.”
“It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World. It will soon be one of the safest!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” the post reads.
When addressing Trump’s concern about crime in the city, Bowser said, “We are not experiencing a crime spike.”
The mayor said she spoke to Trump a few weeks ago in the White House’s Oval Office and several times about crime, including the first meeting she had with him when he was elected for his second term.
“The President is very aware of our efforts,” Bowser said. “He established a task force, which our police department and agencies support with information and anything else they ask us for…it is always the President’s prerogative to use federal law enforcement or the National Guard.”
News4’s Joseph Olmo reports on where we’ve seen federal law enforcement officers after the Trump administration ordered more patrols in D.C.
On Wednesday, Trump said he wanted to send the National Guard to D.C. as he considers federalizing the D.C. police task force. While Bowser acknowledged Trump has the power to deputize the National Guard, she said she’s concerned and that it’s “not the most efficient use of our Guard.”
“For this reason, I have the ability to call on the National Guard by making a request to the Department of Defense,” Bowser said. “They’re not law enforcement officials. These are men and women who leave their families to serve our country, and that is just not their primary role to enforce local laws.”
D.C. National Guard troops were not activated as of Friday evening.
Bowser defends D.C.’s crime rates
When asked about the crime in D.C., Bowser defended its decreasing crime rates. She said the city drove down violent crime to a 30-year low by dropping by 26% so far in 2025.
Bowser also praised the city’s rising tourism and said D.C. is “among the most beautiful and best cities in the world.” She said any comparisons to a war-torn country to D.C. are “hyperbolic and false.”
“It is true we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023, this is 2025,” Bowser said. “We’ve done that by working with the community, working with the police, working with our prosecutors, and, in fact, working with the federal government.”
On Sunday, Trump announced on Truth Social that the city’s homeless population to leave “immediately.”
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,” he posted.
Bowser said on MSNBC that she believes that when Trump left the White House at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he had a lot of concerns about homelessness. She said that while D.C. had that concern back then, “those conditions simply don’t exist now.”
“We’re going to keep talking to the president, working with his people on the issues that are high priority for him,” Bowser said. “If the priority is to show force in an American city, we know he can do that here, but it won’t be because there’s a spike in crime.”
Bowser ended the interview by saying D.C. needs help from the federal government in other ways, such as more prosecutors, judges and rebuilding D.C.’s jail.
It is not yet clear whether the president will speak during Monday’s event, nor is it clear whether it will be open to reporters outside the White House pool.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
