President Donald Trump said Thursday that the federal government could move to take back Washington and run it on a federal basis if Janeese Lewis George wins the race for D.C. mayor, turning a local primary into a fight over who controls the city. Asked at a White House news conference about the Ward 4 Council member and her campaign’s similarities to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Trump said, “I wouldn’t like it.”
He went further, saying, “maybe we’ll take back Washington and run it on a federal basis. We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses.” Trump cast the city as a success story, calling Washington “a safe, beautiful place,” saying, “People are coming; restaurants are thriving,” and adding, “We got rid of the crime.”
The comments landed days before the District’s Democratic primary, where seven candidates are running for mayor and early voting ends Sunday. Election Day is June 16. Lewis George has campaigned on housing affordability, tenant protections and expanding public services, and her race was already drawing attention as one of the main contests in the field, alongside former Council member Kenyan McDuffie.
Lewis George responded in a statement after the news conference, saying the city was not going to get ICE off its streets by fearing Trump. “We are not going to protect our rights or Home Rule by obeying in advance,” she said. “Threatening Home Rule because you do not like how residents vote is an attack on democracy itself.” She added that the people of D.C. elect the mayor of D.C. and want someone who will stand up to Trump.
That warning cuts to the core of the dispute. Home Rule gives the District its local self-governance, but Congress would need to approve any elimination of it, and Trump did not lay out any concrete plan for how the federal government would assume more control. McDuffie, also seen as a leading contender, said it is up to D.C. residents to decide the next mayor, not the president, and his campaign said he would fight to protect Home Rule and defend against MAGA federal overreach.
For now, Trump has put the threat on the table and Lewis George has made the election a test of whether Washington’s voters will choose their mayor free of federal pressure. What happens after June 16 will show whether that warning was political theater or the opening move in a broader fight over the city’s autonomy.
