District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, once a defiant figure against President Donald Trump’s first administration, has registered her most cordial year with Trump in 2025.
As she brings her mayoral chapter to a close at the end of next year, Bowser has struck a much different, more appeasing tone with Trump in the first year of his second term. This marks a sharp contrast from her stance as a foil to Trump in 2020.
This juxtaposition between Bowser’s relationship with Trump at the end of his first term and in 2025 is most evident just blocks from the White House.
In June 2020, during protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Bowser commissioned the painting of Black Lives Matter Plaza on 16th Street NW near the White House. The move was a public rebuke of Trump’s messaging on the Black Lives Matter movement and earned her national praise from Democrats, who saw her as a defiant, anti-Trump force, and a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
But in March, construction crews dismantled Black Lives Matter Plaza. Bowser yielded to the dismantling of the painted words after mounting pressure from GOP lawmakers, including a proposal from Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) to withhold federal funds from the district if the plaza was not renamed.
“We have long considered Black Lives Matter Plaza’s evolution and the plaza will be part of D.C.’s America 250 mural project, where we will invite students and artists to create new murals across all eight wards,” Bowser said in a March statement. “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference.”
As Bowser’s reversal on Black Lives Matter Plaza showed one of the most obvious physical markers of her administration striking a more placating approach with Trump, the mayor consistently maintained this cordial strategy with the president throughout 2025.
Bowser has a difficult line to walk, compared to other Democratic mayors, as much of the blue city’s governance is controlled by the GOP-controlled federal government. Bowser has been more cautious with her approach to the administration in 2025, following several federalization threats from Trump, as he said early in his term that he was considering a “takeover” to “govern the District of Columbia.”
Throughout 2025, Bowser cooperated with Trump on federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department, clearing homeless encampments, and deploying the National Guard. She also made moves to shift the district away from its sanctuary policies, which have been a thorn in the side of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. Bowser also appeared at the White House with Trump in May to announce that the 2027 NFL Draft would be on the National Mall.
When Trump declared a crime emergency in Washington in August, deploying National Guard troops and federalizing the MPD, Bowser was far more conciliatory in her response than other district leaders. Though she emphasized her support for district statehood and called Trump’s actions “unsettling and unprecedented,” Bowser came out calm in her press conferences after the announcement.
“The fact that we have more law enforcement and presence in neighborhoods, that may be a positive,” Bowser said on Trump’s federal officer deployment.
Bowser touted Trump’s declared crime emergency in late August for leading to an 87% drop in carjackings during the surge in law enforcement officers.
“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” Bowser said. “We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of gun goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer. So this surge has been important to us.”
Bowser announced in late November that she would not seek reelection in 2026, marking an end to her time as mayor following the completion of her third term in January 2027.
She told reporters bluntly that Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington did not have any effect on her decision to forgo reelection.
Following her November announcement, Trump praised Bowser for her cooperation with his administration to bring down crime in the district.
“Well, I got along with her very well,” Trump said in November. “I liked her. We worked together. D.C. is now a safe community. It’s a great community.”
As Bowser finishes out her last year as mayor in 2026, political pundits will surely watch to see how her relationship with Trump changes, if at all, now that she is not seeking reelection.
BOWSER AND TRUMP’S EVOLVING RELATIONSHIP, EXPLAINED
D.C. Councilwoman Janeese Lewis George, a much more progressive figure on the Left than Bowser, launched her 2026 mayoral bid in December. She has stated she wished Bowser had taken a more resistant stance against Trump as he federalized the MPD and sent in the National Guard in August.
“We’ve never seen in history where complying in advance or capitulating has worked,” George told WAMU in August. “The only response has to be reject and to resist. And in doing so, we earn allies across this country in this fight.”
