Donald Trump attacked many American cities. But as president, he will have direct authority over only one — his once-and-to-be home in Washington, D.C., where city leaders are bracing for their ire and hoping for the best.
Trump’s first term has been viewed as an unwelcome distraction in the capital, where more than 9 in 10 voters have rejected Trump at the polls every time and have almost consistently opposed him and his officials.
But on the eve of Trump’s return to the White House, D.C. officials fear losing their tenuous grip on the limited self-government they have painstakingly won over decades. Trump has promised many times “Taking over” a city he described as “an ugly and crime-ridden embarrassment to our nation.”
While Washington officials once hoped for full statehood, now they simply want to preserve the ability to choose their own leaders.
“A second Trump presidency presents risks for D.C., which lacks the protections of statehood and full home rule,” he said. “I will continue to defend DC home rule from any attacks that may come our way.”
There will be little to stop Trump if he wants to follow through on his threat to federalize the capital. Constitutionally, the District of Columbia is a chamber of the federal government. Its limited autonomy is derived from Congress and can be revoked at will by the president and Congress.
For example, Trump could do it with the stroke of a pen to take The DC National Guard and even the Metropolitan Police Department, the city’s local municipal police, at least for a period of time. And he could deploy more federal law enforcement, as he did during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
The Republican-controlled Congress could overturn ordinances passed by the district’s elected council and impose its own rules, such as potential restrictions on abortion. And Trump and Congress together could eliminate county local autonomy or restore something like the Financial Control Board that oversaw city spending in the 1990s.
“We’ve been debating and planning for months when the District needs to defend itself and its values,” said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser he said At a press conference a week after Trump’s election.
The mayor was also in office during Trump’s first term and repeatedly clashed with him, resulting in him having “Black Lives Matter” emblazoned in giant yellow letters on a square near the White House, becoming a magnet for racial justice protests that Trump has rejected. federal law enforcement agencies.
However, at his post-election press conference this year, Bowser took a noticeably more conciliatory tone.
Bowser said on behalf of the city that he “congratulates President-elect Trump and his team on their victory,” adding that “Washington is ready to welcome the new administration.” He highlighted areas where the city and Trump could find common ground and collaborate.
“We know we can work together with the Trump administration,” he said.
Bowser and Trump have some common interests, such as getting more federal workers back into office, a Trump priority that would help downtown businesses that have struggled since the Covid pandemic hit the city’s tax base.
Trump has also often talked about wanting to revitalize federal buildings and large tracts of land in the city, creating many neighborhood parks, potentially creating jobs and boosting tourism. He wants too Save the FBI headquarters downtown instead of moving to the suburbs.
But there is more that separates them than unites them.
Trump has said he wants to “take over” the city — “I wouldn’t even call the mayor,” he mused in a speech last year — and he said“An important part of my platform for president is to take back, restore and rebuild Washington.”
Project 2025 It calls on Congress to use its power over the district to require it to provide more vouchers for private schools, repeal the district’s law allowing physician-assisted suicide and move federal agencies out of Washington. tried to do in the first period.
“President Trump was re-elected with a resounding mandate from the American people to change the status quo in Washington,” said Carolyn Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition who has been named White House press secretary. plans for the capital. “That is why he has chosen brilliant and highly respected outsiders to serve in his administration and will continue to stand behind them as he fights back against all those who seek to undermine the MAGA agenda.”
Republicans in Congress have long used riders attached to spending bills to micromanage DC. prevented the implementation of the city legal marijuana market after voters approved the idea in a referendum more than a decade ago.
now, concerns reproductive rights groups The Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. The Republican trifecta could target abortion rights in the city as the Wade decision no longer protects them.
And they could go further if they wanted to.
Washington has only had its own government elected by residents since the 1970s with the passage of the DC Home Rule Act, but that can be overturned by a similar act of Congress.
“The region has its own rules, and Congress can change that. They could. It is possible,” Bowser said at the press conference.
In 1995, as the city struggled with the crack epidemic and after a wave of elections that saw Republicans win control of the House for the first time in decades, Democratic President Bill Clinton signed legislation creating a federal oversight board for the city. The five-member D.C. Financial Control Board had day-to-day authority to overrule the decisions of the D.C. Council and its mayor and oversee how it spent the money it collected through taxes on its residents.
The Board of Supervisors was discontinued only in 2001, after the city produced four consecutive balanced budgets, and city leaders now worry that Trump and congressional Republicans could use crime or other issues as an argument to establish a similar board of supervisors.
But Norton is most concerned about the city’s police force, which under the Home Rule Act, the president can federalize for up to 30 days during a state of emergency. Congress can then decide to extend the president’s term of control.
“During his first term as president, Trump wanted to federalize D.C.’s police force for his own purposes,” said Norton, who has repeatedly introduced bills to amend the law to keep local police local. “DC Police’s first priority and responsibility must be to the residents of the District.”