Once anti-Trumpers, liberal leadership is coming out of the woodwork poised to mend a broken relationship with President-elect Donald Trump now that he has the keys to the White House.
Liberal Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) called Trump on Tuesday, asking for a meeting with him to discuss the increased crime rates the city has seen since he first left office in 2020. This comes after the incoming 47th president vowed to bring D.C. back to life and restore law and order.
“We will always do a fight for what's in the best interest of Washington. I've worked with three presidents, including President-elect Trump, and congressional leaders of both parties to advance the priorities of the District," Bowser told reporters.
However, Trump did not echo similar sentiments.
During a campaign stop before the election, the president-elect said he would take D.C. “away from the mayor,” acknowledging that his words don’t make him “popular there, but I have to say it."
While on the campaign trail, Trump vowed to “take over the horribly run capital of our nation in Washington, D.C., and clean it up.” He also promised to rebuild the district of corruption “so there is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime.”
This comes after Trump promised to drain the swamp of D.C. bureaucrats. He has already initiated the relocation of some agencies, such as the Department of Education, out of the city to other states and transferred the responsibilities back to individual states.
Bowser suggested she would cooperate with Trump to revitalize the city’s economy by bringing the federal workforce back to work in person and improving the use of its federal buildings. On the contrary, Trump said he would move thousands of government jobs out of the swamp and “dismantle Government Bureaucracy,” which could affect the city’s economy.
“We need partners that help return the vibrancy of downtown Washington and what I like to call — my staff doesn’t like it when I say this — the majesty of the federal government,” Bowser said.
In 2023, D.C. officials defunded the police by 1.7 percent. In addition, U.S. Attorney for D.C., Matthew Graves, chose not to prosecute more than half (56 percent) of arrested criminals.
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