Trump threatens new DC takeover if democratic socialist mayoral candidate wins
President Donald Trump on Thursday waded into D.C.’s mayoral race for the first time, saying he is opposed to Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, winning next week’s Democratic primary.
Trump, when asked by a reporter about the campaign, said that he “wouldn’t like it” if Lewis George is victorious and threatened that his administration “maybe would take back Washington, run it on the federal basis.”
“We won’t put up with it,” Trump said. “We’re not going to lose our businesses.”
Lewis George, in a statement, said: “We are not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president. We are not going to protect our rights or Home Rule by obeying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you do not like how residents vote is an attack on democracy itself. The people of DC elect the mayor of DC. And they want someone who will stand up to Donald Trump.”
While he has authority to seize temporary control of the city’s police department and to deploy the D.C. National Guard, as he did last year, Trump is legally barred from unilaterally revoking the city’s right to self-government, a step that would require an act of Congress.
Lewis George has been leading in recent polls over her chief rival, Kenyan R. McDuffie in Tuesday’s primary, the election of consequence in a city in which Democrats far outnumber Republicans. The winner will likely succeed outgoing Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), whom Trump has praised.
Throughout the campaign, Lewis George has pledged to push back aggressively against Trump, who last year ordered the federal government to assume command of the city’s police force and dispatched National Guard troops and immigration enforcement agents into the streets.
Trump made his remarks in the Oval Office after a reporter asked how he would “feel” if Lewis George wins the race, describing her as “running a Zohran Mamdani campaign, focused on socialist policies.”
Trump did not elaborate on why he is opposed to Lewis George. But he said the city “now is a safe, beautiful place,” describing how his administration helped reduce crime and has repaired 22 water fountains that had not worked “for years, 25 years, 40 years, 58 years.”
“People are coming, restaurants are thriving,” he said of the nation’s capital. “Washington is thriving.”
D.C. police have said crime statistics were declining before the Trump administration’s intervention.
It was not immediately clear how the president’s remarks would affect D.C. voters. Trump won only 6.4% of the vote in the city in the 2024 presidential election.
A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll showed that nearly 80% of residents opposed the federal takeover of the police department last year, as well as the presence of National Guard troops.