WASHINGTON — President Trump praised DC’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday for cooperating with his administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to crack down on crime — before calling on blue-state governors to let him do the same.
“Wow! Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. has become very popular because she worked with me and my great people in bringing CRIME down to virtually NOTHING in D.C.,” Trump posted on his Truth Social Monday.
“Her statements and actions were positive, instead of others like [Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker, [Maryland Gov.] Wes Moore, [California Gov. Gavin] Newscum [Newsom], and the 5% approval rated Mayor of Chicago, who spend all of their time trying to justify violent Crime, instead of working with us to completely ELIMINATE it, which we have done in Washington, D.C., NOW A CRIME FREE ZONE,” he added.
Trump also claimed Bowser’s popularity had already surged 25 percentage points since agreeing to partner starting Aug. 11 with federal law enforcement in tackling the city’s crime, though it’s unclear what polling data the president cited.
“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” Bowser said last Wednesday at a press conference.
She then revealed there had been an 87% drop in carjackings and a 45% decrease in all violent crime.
“We know that when carjackings go down, when use of gun goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer,” the mayor said.
A Washington Post-George Mason University Schar School survey in May showed her at 53% job approval.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to say that about Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and even the Crime Drenched City of Baltimore???” he said of Bowser’s supposedly upward-trending job performance rating. “It can happen, and it can happen FAST! Work with us!!!”
Last week, the president indicated he would deploy National Guard troops to those cities if the governors of the surrounding states requested that.
Trump told The Post on Tuesday that he would want New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to also agree that her state needed the presence of Guard members before OKing their deployment.
“I’d love to do it if she’d like. I get along with Kathy. If she’d like to do that, I would do it,” Trump said in a cabinet meeting. “I want to make this, like, friendly.”
National Guard troops have not been arresting people in DC, but have been patrolling — at times with weapons — and assisting local law enforcement efforts in the nation’s capital by the Metropolitan Police Department as well as by federal partners like the FBI and US Park Police.
A total of 1,599 arrests have been made in DC since the start of Trump’s crime crackdown last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed Monday.
As of Sept. 1, 165 illegal guns have also been taken off the streets.
“Congratulations to Mayor Muriel Bowser, but don’t go Woke on us. D.C. is a GIANT VICTORY that never has to end!!!” Trump added in his lengthy post.
The cooperation from Bowser came after the Trump administration dismantled Black Lives Matter Plaza just north of the White House in March.
