DC mayor explains trip to Martha’s Vineyard as Trump ramps up federal law enforcement presence

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said she left her city on Thursday amid President Trump's crackdown and police takeover because she needed to pick her seven-year-old daughter up from camp, emphasizing she was in control the whole time.

Bowser's exit, reportedly to Martha’s Vineyard, had drawn widespread attention, including from the president, who posted on social media about her going to the island off Massachusetts now as a vacation hotspot and liberal enclave.

“I am in constant contact with my senior team and have been in constant consultation with our partners throughout a short swing out of the District,” Bowser said on social media, adding that she had already canceled a family vacation in order to manage the city’s response.

Bowser, who has not publicly discussed where she went, said she would return Friday.

The White House has escalated its attempted federal takeover by attempting on Thursday to essentially install the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration as the district’s police chief. Bowser and other city officials have contended that the administration does not have that power.

Federal law enforcement agents and National Guard personnel have ramped up their presence over the week, including in traffic-heavy areas like the National Mall and Union Station. The president’s posture has been to combat crime in the city, but Democrats have characterized it as a test case for potential assertions of power in other blue urban areas in the future.

Bowser is also seeking to avoid the kind of firestorms faced by other big-city mayors who were caught out of their cities during times of crisis.

In January, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) faced sharp criticism for being in Ghana during the first days of what would become devastating wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.