DC Mayor Bowser walks delicate line with Trump, reflecting the city's precarious position

NEW YORK (AP) — As National Guard troops deploy across her city as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to clamp down on crime, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is responding with relative restraint.

She’s called Trump’s takeover of the city’s police department and his decision to activate 800 members of the guard “ unsettling and unprecedented ” and gone as far as to cast his efforts as part of an “authoritarian push.”

But Bowser has so far avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders, despite the unprecedented incursion into her city.

“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that, given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Bowser told reporters at a press conference responding to the efforts. She even suggested the surge in resources might benefit the city and noted that limited home rule allows the federal government “to intrude on our autonomy in many ways.”

https://apnews.com/article/trump-bowser-dc-home-rule-national-democrats-8e262a15267bdae66049201a4cc4a6a8