‘She doesn’t have the power to stop him’: DC mayor walks a tightrope with Trump

As the federal takeover of DC police ends, Muriel Bowser is balancing leftwing pressure with a rightwing president

During a press conference at the end of August, Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, made sure to say “thank you” – in her own way – for Donald Trump’s influx of federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital.

“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” Bowser said. She admitted that, after a recent meeting with the president, his knowledge of DC had “significantly increased” since his first term in the White House.