D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and President-elect Trump discussed Washington’s quest to become the 51st state during a meeting Tuesday at Trump Tower.
“We talked about the things that are important to Washingtonians and certainly becoming the fifty-first state is one of them,” Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters after speaking with the incoming Republican president.
Bowser, a Democrat, declined to discuss the president-elect’s opinion on whether the nation’s capital should become a state, but said it was clear that he emphatically supports the city he will soon call home.
“He’s familiar with the District of Columbia and he wants to be supportive,” she told reporters.
The mayor requested the meeting. Bowser said she felt obligated to let Trump know that despite being the federal city, Washington is not a federal agency or “dependent on the federal government for our funds.”
“It was important to me that he knew also about our relationship with the president and with Congress,” she said, noting that they spoke about past and upcoming inaugural activities.
She added: “We had a wide-ranging conversation about things that are important to Washingtonians; who we are; how we function as a city, county and a state; how we’re 680,000 people; how our city’s economy is booming and how we have exciting economic development and exciting opportunities.”
Asked in March about his position on D.C. statehood, a passionate issue among the city’s residents, Trump declined to take a definitive position.
“I don’t have a position on it yet,” he told the Washington Post. “I would form a position, but I think statehood is a tough thing for D.C. I don’t see statehood for D.C.”
