DC mayor warns Trump’s National Guard use threatens American democracy
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In Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser said she doubted the legality of the federal deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country as President Trump moved to send troops to fight crime.
Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference in Washington on Wednesday, the mayor was asked about not supporting the use of the National Guard to fight crime.
“I don’t think it’s legal for the National Guard to monitor Americans on American soil, let me start there,” Bowser said.
The mayor explained how the National Guard in D.C. is under the authority of the president, while the National Guard in the state is generally controlled by the governor.
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Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she doubts the legality of the federal deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The way we use the mission and the National Guard — unlike most states where a governor can call up the chief of the National Guard or his National Guard — in D.C., our D.C. National Guard reports to the president,” Bowser said.
“While I can request the National Guard, they are completely federally run. So D.C. is a little bit different than other places for the D.C. National Guard,” he continued.
The mayor added: “We use the Guard to respond to emergencies. We use the Guard for large-scale events. We do not use the Guard to police or our local laws.”
In recent months, Trump has increased federal law enforcement presence. Washington, D.C. In an effort to reduce crime. Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops have been deployed to the streets of D.C. as part of a federal takeover of the area.
Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops have been deployed to the streets of D.C. as part of a federal takeover of the area. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
Trump also deployed troops to several other Democratic-led cities, including Chicago. The city and the Illinois home state sued the federal government over the deployment.
A federal appeals court partially returned control of the National Guard in Illinois to the federal government, but prevented Trump from sending troops to the streets of Chicago or across Illinois.
Trump also deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer to respond to anti-ICE protests sparked by federal immigration raids targeting immigrant workers at local businesses. California officials sued over the federal deployment.
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President Donald Trump has deployed troops to several Democratic-led cities, including Chicago. (AP/Laura Bargfeld)
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Americans in Washington and across the country should be concerned about what the deployments mean for the nation’s democracy, Bowser said Wednesday.
“We should all be concerned about the use of the military because it’s a slippery slope,” he said.
“One day you use it for crowd control, the next day you use it for presence; it’s not too far a step to use it in other ways that could interfere with the nature of American democracy,” Bowser said.
