The alleged assault of a senior DOGE staffer is presenting a fresh test to Mayor Muriel Bowser as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the District of Columbia.
Bowser, a Democrat who represents a heavily blue enclave, has managed to stave off past takeover threats by accommodating Trump’s demands, in particular his focus on homeless encampments in the city. But the apparent beating of Edward Coristine, a Department of Government Efficiency engineer who goes by the nickname “Big Balls,” by juvenile offenders in a well-to-do neighborhood is threatening to sour their relationship.
Trump cannot act unilaterally — repealing the 1973 Home Rule Act would require congressional intervention, but with GOP control of Washington, the flashpoint over crime and how Bowser responds to it is putting D.C.’s independence once again on the line.
“The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14,” Trump wrote this week on his social media platform, Truth Social. “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”
In an interview, a White House official told the Washington Examiner that D.C. has become “safer and more beautiful” under Trump’s leadership, but that the president wants crime to “continue to go down,” particularly those committed by juvenile offenders.
“It’s a smart move on his part to leverage his power to push local officials to enforce the law and stop the senseless crime,” the official said. “Although he hasn’t totally federalized D.C. yet, the administration has used federal resources to assist local enforcement.”
To that end, Trump signed an executive order in March, creating a task force for the Trump administration and D.C. Council to collaborate on, among other policies, law enforcement, including immigration enforcement. The order also directed investment in the district’s police workforce and facilities, such as a forensic crime laboratory.
“[The National Park Service] has actually cleared 64 encampments, and has seen a decrease in instances of new encampments and the number of sites with encampments overall,” the White House official said of homelessness in the city.
The official also tied the administration’s immigration priorities to reductions in crime. “In 2024, from May 5 through July 19, there were 413 arrests of illegal aliens. In the same period in 2025, illegal alien arrests total 2,994. Crime has come down because enforcement is up.”
Still, that collaboration did not prevent Trump’s threat to take over D.C this week. According to police reports, Coristine was assaulted early last Sunday morning by a group of young people openly speaking about stealing his and his girlfriend’s car in Dupont Circle.
“Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City.”
Coristine’s former boss, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, took to his social media platform, X, to implore Trump to take over the district.
“It is time to federalize DC,” he wrote.
When pressed on whether Bowser would support tougher criminal penalties for juvenile offenders, the mayor’s spokesman pointed the Washington Examiner to a bill she proposed last year that would compel the Office of the Attorney General in D.C. to prosecute children and teenagers who commit certain crimes or miss school more aggressively. The D.C. Council continues to consider the bill.
“Council has passed some other measures related to youth, but not to the level of what the mayor introduced,” a spokesman for Bowser said.
Bowser’s bill is part of a larger effort to align with Trump broadly on certain issues, and her appeals to the White House include a trip to Mar-a-Lago during the president’s 2024 transition.
Their working relationship had almost reached a breaking point toward the end of his first administration over their different responses to the protests after the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
As part of her apparent outreach, Bowser removed the Black Lives Matter mural near the White House and multiple homeless encampments in D.C., including one near the State Department. The mayor has also sought to underscore their shared policy priorities, including incentivizing government workers to return to the office, and has removed information from the D.C. Council’s website about the district being a sanctuary city.
Bowser, however, has dismissed any connection between the removal of the Black Lives Matter mural and Trump, instead tying the change to a city project to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary. Simultaneously, she has tried to portray having a partnership with Trump rather than a more hierarchical dynamic with the president.
When asked about a phone call she received from the White House in March regarding the State Department homeless encampment, Bowser told reporters, “I said, ‘Thanks for the notice. We’ll take care of it.’ They’re not ordering us to do anything.”
Homelessness nonetheless continues to be a problem for Trump and, therefore, Bowser, with the president asking last week about a separate encampment near the White House.
“I’m getting rid of them right now,” he told reporters on Friday. “You can’t do that, especially in Washington, D.C. I talk to the mayor about it all the time. I said, ‘You’ve got to get rid of the tents.’”
Trump has a complicated relationship with D.C., which welcomed his first term with widespread protests. Republicans complain about the district’s heavy Democratic lean. Last year, 92% of D.C. registered voters identified as Democrats, while only 6% considered themselves Republicans.
At the same time, Trump’s threat to take over D.C. is complicated by statutory limits on both its council and Congress.
D.C. is governed by Article One of the Constitution and the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973. Under that framework, the D.C. mayor and council oversee the district, but Congress has the right to review and repeal its laws and budget and appoint its judges. Under that framework, any takeover executive action would likely necessitate an act of Congress and be challenged in court.
The most recent example of Congress reviewing and repealing a D.C. law also concerned crime. In that case, lawmakers vetoed a bill the D.C. Council passed in 2023 that would have reduced penalties for murders, armed robberies, armed home invasions, carjackings, and sexual assault offenses despite a rise in incidents.
A spokesman for Bowser on Wednesday emphasized crime data from this week that reported a 26% drop in violent crime and a 5% simultaneous decrease in property crime in D.C. in 2025 compared to last year.
Although Trump’s threat to take over D.C. is complicated, it is not unprecedented. The last time the federal government effectively took over the district was in 1995, when former President Bill Clinton signed the Republican-endorsed District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Act into law in reaction to then-Mayor Marion Barry. That legislation established the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, which managed the district’s finances until 2001.
In that case, Barry, who, among other controversies, was caught in an FBI and D.C. Police sting operation in 1990 smoking crack cocaine, had requested that Congress take over responsibilities typically undertaken by state governments, hence Clinton and Republicans’ District of Columbia Financial Control Board. However, Barry would disagree with the board, resulting in the board revoking his authority over nine D.C. agencies.
Trump’s takeover threat coincides with Congress declining to pass legislation addressing a funding shortfall of $1.1 billion that it introduced into D.C.’s budget with its continuing resolution, a stopgap spending measure to keep the federal government open beyond March. That measure did not include language exempting D.C., meaning the district was only permitted to spend according to its budget from last year.
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When pressed on whether Trump would reiterate his support for restoring the funding, the White House simply cited Trump’s March Truth Social Post.
“Washington, D.C., must become CLEAN and SAFE again! We need our Great Police back on the street, with no excuses from the Mayor, or anyone else,” the president wrote at the time. “The House should take up the D.C. funding ‘fix’ that the Senate has passed, and get it done IMMEDIATELY.”