District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser caused heads to turn as she seemed to have fled her home city and related responsibilities for cooler climes.

The DC Mayor reportedly went to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday, just days after President Donald Trump made a federalized takeover of the police department, as The Daily Caller reported.

This is particularly frustrating to some, considering that the president has deployed the National Guard to attempt to get control of crime on the streets of the nation’s capital.

Bowser’s Response

The DC mayor spoke about her absence on X, citing family obligations and talking about her child:

“Friends — as you know, I'm both a mom and mayor, raising a delightful 7-year-old on my own.

“This week, I cancelled a scheduled family trip to lead our city's crisis management efforts. I also made the more difficult decision to not disrupt my daughter's camp plans.

She went on to justify the departure, saying, “I needed to get to her on Wednesday after work and bring her home, which I will do tomorrow.

Let us be clear about what the law requires during a Presidential declared emergency: it requires the mayor of Washington, DC to provide the services of the Metropolitan Police Department for federal purposes at the request of the President.

We have followed the law.

In… pic.twitter.com/XfaNqLalFU

— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) August 15, 2025

In response to the president’s decision, Bowser said on Wednesday that she believes Trump’s view of the Capitol was “shaped by his COVID-era experience during his first term."

She asserted that there were “more challenging times related to some issues” and that the city has “experienced a crime spike post-COVID.”

She also fiercely asserted that the city has worked to “quickly” put in place laws that would get “violent offenders off our streets.”

Going Forward

According to the city mayor, even while she’s gone, she is “in constant contact with [her] senior team,” and she has also been “in constant consultation with our partners throughout a short swing out of the District.”

This comes after Trump declared a “public safety emergency” on Aug. 11 and took over the city’s police department with federal law enforcement.

He issued a temporary order that would deploy a large number of federal officers to the area around the DC metroplex, in hopes of coping with problems he believes are partially due to the liberal control of the police efforts.