DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Reports 'Productive Discussion' With Trump
Donald Trump has repeatedly portrayed Washington, DC, as a city in chaos, but the city's mayor, Muriel Bowser, indicated she had a "productive discussion" with the president-elect on Monday and emerged "confident that we can identify shared priorities moving forward."
Throughout this year's presidential race, Trump painted the District of Columbia in bleak colors. "We will assume control of our nation's poorly managed capital in Washington, DC and restore it, modernize it, reconstruct our capital city so it's no longer plagued by violence and lawlessness," he declared during an August campaign stop.
Bowser, a Democrat, released a statement on X saying that "we explored potential areas of cooperation between city and federal authorities, particularly regarding our federal workforce, underutilized government properties, parks, and recreational areas and infrastructure."
She provided no details about the meeting location.
In the wake of Trump's electoral victory, ideas put forward by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to reduce government expenditure — and personnel — have sparked widespread concern across the District and neighboring Virginia and Maryland, an area where government spending and federal employees have historically been crucial economic drivers.
However, one element of the Musk-Ramaswamy proposal has garnered strong backing from local business and government officials — an initiative to bring workers back to offices following the shift to remote work during the Covid pandemic. Like many urban mayors, Bowser has indicated that returning government employees to their workplaces would significantly boost the recovery of downtown commerce.