As President Donald J. Trump ramps up an aggressive federal intervention to address what he calls a “plague of crime and homelessness” in the nation’s capital, the city’s liberal mayor, Muriel E. Bowser, has now reportedly left Washington for Martha’s Vineyard, a luxury Massachusetts destination long associated with political elites.
The Democratic mayor acknowledged on social media that she was traveling to attend to a “family obligation” — to pick up her 7-year-old daughter — and said she would return Friday. Bowser declined to confirm her exact location, but NBC Washington reported she had gone to Martha’s Vineyard.
“I’m both a mom and mayor, raising a delightful 7 year old on my own,” Bowser wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This week, I cancelled a scheduled family trip to lead our city’s crisis management efforts. I also made the more difficult decision to not disrupt my daughter’s camp plans.” She added that she left Wednesday “after work” and was in “constant contact” with her senior team and outside partners “throughout a short swing out of the District.”
Her absence comes as the president has invoked emergency authority under the 1973 Home Rule Act to take direct control of the city’s police force, deploy National Guard units, and direct federal law enforcement to supplement local operations.
Mr. Trump has pledged to “liberate” Washington from what he describes as rampant crime left unchecked by the city’s Democratic leadership.
“Because the Democrat Government of D.C. has largely stopped investigating, arresting, and prosecuting most Crime, the published statistics don’t even capture a fraction of the actual Violence,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday. “No one is arrested for shoplifting.
Citizens living in fear have largely given up on calling the Police, instead choosing not to walk the streets after dark, essentially becoming captive prisoners in their own City.”
The president asserted that actual crime rates may be “five to ten times” higher than reported, blaming what he views as lax enforcement. “D.C. has been under siege from thugs and killers, but now, D.C. is back under Federal Control where it belongs. The White House is in charge. The Military and our Great Police will liberate this City, scrape away the filth, and make it safe, clean, habitable and beautiful once more!”
Since the crackdown began Monday, federal officers — working with city police now under presidential authority — have made dozens of arrests.
On Tuesday alone, 43 people were taken into custody. Under Mr. Trump’s orders, the Metropolitan Police Department is coordinating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target undocumented immigrants as part of the anti-crime push.
Critics of the city’s handling of public safety have long pointed to violent crime, open-air drug markets, and encampments as evidence of a leadership vacuum.
Mr. Trump’s move to reassert federal control has drawn praise from some residents frustrated with deteriorating conditions — and criticism from others who see it as a challenge to local governance.
For now, Washington’s crime fight is being led not from the Wilson Building, but from the White House. And with Mayor Bowser on the Massachusetts coast, Mr. Trump appears determined to set the tone — and the pace — for the capital’s security.
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