The president called out Mayor Muriel Bowser in a Truth Social post published just after 1 a.m. on Monday.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is threatening to call another national emergency in D.C. Trump made a Truth Social post just after 1 a.m. on Monday. Trump is taking aim at Mayor Muriel Bowser for comments made about the Metropolitan Police Department.
As Trump’s 30-day emergency control of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police came to a close on last week, Mayor Muriel Bowser said she was expecting the department to head back to a “pre-emergency status quo.” Most notably, that means the MPD will stop working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Immigration enforcement is not what MPD does. And with the end of the emergency, it won’t be what MPD does in the future,” Bowser said at an event last week.
In his early-morning post Monday, Trump patted himself on the back for bringing the National Guard into the District to fight crime. But said he won’t allow MPD to start working with ICE.
“If I allowed this to happen, CRIME would come roaring back,” Trump writes. “To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!”
When Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act on Aug. 11, he was able to compel the mayor to provide MPD services for federal needs for up to 30 days. That includes, Bowser said, immigration enforcement. Those 30 days end Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.
Though Trump said the surge and police takeover was in effort to combat violent crime, hundreds of immigration arrests were made. Days into the federal control, Police Chief Pamela Smith made an executive order allowing limited cooperation between the MPD and ICE, which had not been previously allowed. But that executive order apparently dies with the emergency.
“It goes with the emergency, and the emergency is over,” Bowser said.
That doesn’t mean ICE will stop operating in D.C. It just means that local police officers will no longer provide ICE with information.
“We have a long history of working with federal law enforcement and we’re going to continue to partner in ways that make sense for D.C. safety,” Bowser said Friday. “The things that were against the law last month are still against the law. We still don’t want people using guns in our community. We don’t want anybody stealing from stores or each other in our community. Carjacking will not be tolerated in our community. All of those things are against the law.”
This comes days before Bowser heads to Capitol Hill to talk about crime in the District. She is set to testify on Thursday in front of the House Oversight Committee.
While the federal order has expired, the number of National Guard troops has not decreased. This week, Joint Task Force DC reports more than 2,300 troops are still on city streets. More than 900 are from the DC National Guard, while troops from eight other states make up the remaining number.