D.C. mayor walking a delicate line with Trump

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

- JILL COLVIN

ALEX BRANDON Associated Press DISTRICT of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser listens as President Trump speaks in the Oval Office in May.

She has called Trump’s takeover of the city’s police department and his decision to activate 800 members of the National 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. Instead, she is cooperating with the administration's efforts, including having city workers clear homeless encampments and work more closely with federal immigration agents, as Trump has demanded.

“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that, givensome ofthe rhetoric ofthe past, that we're totally surprised,” Bowser told reporters at a news conference responding to the efforts. She even suggested the surge in resources might benefit the city.

“The fact that we have more law enforcement and presence in neighborhoods, that may be positive,” she said.

Bowserargued her hands were largely tied, noting that limited home rule allows the federal government “to intrude on our autonomy in many ways,” and defended her approach.

“My tenor will be appropriate for what I think is important for the District. And what's important for the District is that we can take care of our citizens,” she said.

The approach underscores the reality of Washington’s precarious position under the thumb of the federal government. Trump has repeatedly threatened an outright takeover of the overwhelmingly Democratic city, which is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973 that could be repealed by Congress. Republicans, who control both chambers, have already frozen more than $1 billion in local spending, slashing the city’s budget.