Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Donald Trump isn\u2019t just looking to remake the federal government. He has his sights set on the city of Washington, too.<\/p>\n
In his first few weeks in office, the president has moved to drastically alter the fabric of the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
He ordered thousands of Washington-area federal workers to return to the office \u2014 some of whom his administration is moving to lay off<\/a>. He injected himself and his allies onto the board<\/a> of the John F. Kennedy Center to recast \u201cwoke\u201d performing art culture. And the city’s mayor said she has been briefed on a pending executive order<\/a> on topics like public safety and homeless encampments in the city.<\/p>\n The flurry of actions drives home that Trump has a dark view of his adopted, part-time home \u2014 possibly influenced by the fact that more than 90 percent of its residents supported his opponent in the 2024 election. He called the District a city of \u201cfilth\u201d and \u201cdecay,\u201d an insult reminiscent of ones he has hurled at other major cities he has feuded with like Baltimore or New York.<\/p>\n Trump has cast his departure from Washington in 2021 as a pivot point for the city. He rarely returned to Washington during his four years out of power \u2014 with a notable exception being an August 2023 trip from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to a D.C. federal court, during which he pleaded not guilty<\/a> to four counts to overturn the 2020 elections. <\/p>\n It was \u201cvery sad driving through Washington, D.C. and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and graffiti,\u201d Trump said on the tarmac just before leaving the D.C. area. \u201cThis is not the place that I left. It\u2019s a very sad thing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n D.C. is rebounding from the pandemic<\/a>, which battered the region\u2019s economy that is supported by in-person work from federal employees, ushered in a since-diminished spike in crime and exacerbated the city\u2019s homelessness crisis.<\/p>\n The president and Congress have the authority to undercut the District\u2019s political machinery by rejecting any bill the local administration puts forward and proposing their own. And Trump\u2019s congressional allies have already moved to disrupt the power balance in the District through legislation introduced earlier this month<\/a> that could undo a 1970s-era law that allowed the nation\u2019s capital to largely govern itself.<\/p>\n Republicans have made similar threats to undermine the D.C. government during Mayor Muriel Bowser\u2019s decade-long tenure. But they were toothless because of Democratic opposition in Congress or the White House.<\/p>\n Even when Republicans gained control<\/a> of the House and Senate during Trump\u2019s first term, he didn\u2019t follow through on his threats, including one that would have overridden D.C. governance by temporarily overtaking agencies like the Metropolitan police. Trump also relied heavily on executive orders to go after immigrants from sanctuary cities like D.C., but those were not targeted specifically to his then-home city and were mostly rescinded by former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n This time, a reenergized Trump armed again with a Republican majority in Congress has said he would tighten his grip on D.C.<\/p>\n The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this article.<\/p>\n If Trump and congressional Republicans dip into city affairs, they would drastically shift the relationship between the Bowser administration and the federal government, which has largely stayed out of local politics in recent years. <\/p>\n About two years ago, Congress stymied local efforts<\/a> to decrease crime penalties, marking the first time in three decades that Capitol Hill officials have successfully flexed this muscle. Congress has also repeatedly passed a rider blocking commercial sales of recreational marijuana in the District.<\/p>\n Republicans on Capitol Hill have justified the local government takeover by skewering the Bowser administration for a recent surge in crime that they say she has mishandled. Homicides surged during the pandemic to a decades-long zenith of 273 cases in 2023, though this figure dipped by 32 percent in 2024, according to D.C. police data<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe radically progressive regime of D.C. Mayor Bowser has left our nation\u2019s Capital in crime-ridden shambles,\u201d Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), one of the co-sponsors for the latest congressional push to defang D.C.\u2019s government, said in a press release. \u201cBowser and her corrupt Washington City Council are incapable of managing the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowser and the council have grown tougher on crime since Trump\u2019s first term. Last March, as the city reeled from a spate of carjackings and homicides, the local government passed a crime omnibus package that imposed harsher penalties for crimes like retail theft and illegal gun possession.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not tolerate violence and we will not tolerate criminal activity that disrupts our sense of safety and our ability to build thriving neighborhoods,\u201d Bowser said in a statement<\/a> following the passage of the bill.<\/p>\n Bowser has tried to further soothe Trump and other Republicans by focusing on \u201cshared priorities for the president\u2019s second term,\u201d like bringing the D.C. region\u2019s federal workforce back to underutilized federal buildings and developing more green spaces and infrastructure, she said in December.<\/p>\n Now, as the city attempts to maintain diplomacy with Republicans, the largely Democratic D.C. Council has to get creative to pass their agendas.<\/p>\n Before Republicans took control of Congress and the presidency on Election Day, the city council was about to pass a pair of bills that would have required insurers to study reparations and fully cover vasectomy procedures. Weeks after the GOP assumed control of Congress and the presidency, the council changed the name of the vasectomy bill to the \u201cInsurance Regulation Amendment Act\u201d as part of a preemptive effort to dodge ire from Republicans, who had launched a national crusade against reproductive rights.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we had a fight over the revised criminal code, the Council lost control of the messaging,\u201d Council chairman Phil Mendelson told The Washington Post<\/a>. \u201cLesson learned. We need to be sensitive to messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n For her part, Bowser still appears optimistic about her relationship with Trump \u2014 who she met with at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in December \u2014 even as the president further derides her city and leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cI agree with the president-elect on this point,\u201d Bowser said in December. \u201cWe want to make our nation\u2019s capital the most beautiful capital in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n