DC mayor warns Trump’s National Guard use threatens American democracy

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said she was skeptical about the legality of the federal deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country as President Trump moved to send troops to respond to crime.

Speaking Wednesday at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference in Washington, the mayor was asked not to support using the National Guard to crack down on crime.

“I don’t think it’s legal, let me start with this, for the National Guard to surveil Americans on American soil,” Bowser said.

The mayor then explained how the Washington DC National Guard is under the authority of the president, while a state’s National Guard is typically controlled by the governor.

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Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she is skeptical about the legality of federal deployment of the National Guard in cities across the country. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The mission and the way we use the National Guard — unlike most states where a governor can call in the head of his National Guard or his National Guard — in Washington, our National Guard in Washington reports to the president,” Bowser said.

“While I can ask for the National Guard, it’s completely federally run. And so DC is a little different than other places for the DC National Guard,” she 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 nor to enforce our local laws.”

In recent months, Trump has increased the presence of federal law enforcement in the country. Washington, D.C., in an attempt to reduce crime. Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops have been deployed to the streets of Washington DC as part of the federal takeover of the District.

Hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops have been deployed to the streets of Washington DC as part of the federal takeover of the District. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

Trump has also deployed troops to several other Democratic-led cities, including Chicago. The city, along with its state headquarters in Illinois, 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 it blocked Trump from deploying troops on the streets of Chicago or across Illinois.

Trump had also deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer to respond to anti-ICE protests sparked by federal immigration raids targeting migrant workers at local businesses. California authorities 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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Bowser said in his speech Wednesday that Americans in Washington and across the country should be concerned about what the deployments mean for the nation’s democracy.

“We should all be concerned about the use of the military because it’s a slippery slope,” she said.

“You use it for crowd control one day, or to ensure your presence the next. There’s not much you can do to use it for other purposes that might interfere with the very nature of American democracy,” Bowser said.