On Friday, an Axios investigation revealed that Washington had removed a page from the district’s website highlighting it as a “sanctuary city.” The move came after the Trump administration threatened to cut transportation funding to sanctuary cities, which was on full display during a hearing this week with mayors from sanctuary cities, including Chicago, Boston, and New York City.

On Feb. 21, Bowser said she would no longer call the district a sanctuary city because she believed it was “misleading to suggest to anyone that if you are violating immigration laws, that this is a place where you can violate immigration laws.”

Also, on Thursday, Bowser accelerated the clearing of homeless encampments near the White House and State Department after Trump made a Truth Social post calling on her to target the area for cleanup. Although the mayor insisted she had not been “ordered” to take action, the expedited cleanup came after a call from the White House following up on the post, to which Bowser responded, “Thanks for the notice. We’ll take care of it.”

Bowser made another concession to the GOP on Tuesday when she revealed that a gigantic 48-foot-wide Black Lives Matter mural located along a two-block area in downtown Washington would be painted over next year. Bowser unveiled the mural in response to calls for social justice and racial equity spurred by the death of George Floyd as violent protests shook the district. It was controversial at the time and condemned by the district’s local BLM chapter as “a performative distraction” and an attempt to “appease white liberals.”  

When pressed on her reversal about the mural on Wednesday, Bowser said, “It was fair to say the White House didn’t like it,” according to NBC Washington. Her announcement axing the BLM mural seemed to be in response to Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) introducing legislation on Monday arguing that “BLM is a radical, defund-the-police organization,” and it would require city officials to remove the mural and rename the plaza or else lose millions of dollars in transportation funding. 

“The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” Bowser said in a statement posted on X.

While she may be willing to negotiate secondary items with the Trump administration, there is one issue Bowser will not budge on. The continued fight for D.C. statehood is nonnegotiable for the mayor, who has said the elevated status is essential to resolving a never-ending dispute between the district and the GOP about ending her city’s home rule and handing over its limited autonomy to the federal government. 

The delicate balance between control and concessions was evident in Bowser’s remarks near the end of February responding to Trump’s comments that “the federal government should take over the governance of D.C” to “run it strong, run it with law and order, [and] make it absolutely flawless.” 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has also reintroduced a bill that would strip home rule from Washington and put Congress in charge of the district.

When pressed on Trump’s threat to the district’s limited home rule, Bowser said Washington had “to fight every day for not being in this position.” 

“And the only way we’re not in this position is when we become a state,” she continued. “As long as we have limited home rule in this city, yes, you have elected officials. But as long as we have limited home rule, we’re always vulnerable to the whims of the Congress or a president.”

Bowser has differed from other blue-city mayors and has avoided attacking Trump directly, instead signaling readiness to work with the president on “shared priorities,” such as public safety and homelessness.

“We will brief the president, give him the facts, and work with him cooperatively,” Bowser said on Feb. 20.

The following day, she took a similar approach when pressed again on Trump’s comments. 

“The question for us is how do we maintain the pathway to the 51st state,” Bowser said. “We’re Americans. We pay taxes. We go to war. We have all the responsibilities of citizenship, but we don’t have all of the rights.” 

Still, Washington supported Trump’s effort to beautify the district and target crime, Bowser said during the Feb. 21 news conference at the National Press Club. 

“The federal government does have a role in public safety in the district, unlike most places, because they’re a big part of our criminal justice system, including judges and including prosecutors. So there are things that we can work on together,” she said.  

The mayor said she was spearheading a proposal petitioning Trump for more funding for surveillance cameras in commercial areas to target crime. She also highlighted plans to grow Washington’s police force to roughly 4,000 officers, a reversal from the city’s move to cut $15 million in police funding in 2020. 

One of the greatest points of collaboration with the Trump administration appeared to be revitalizing the city’s downtown area, which had faced stagnation. A report released last March concluded that only 12% of federal office buildings were occupied in the city. 

The president’s initiative to bring federal employees back to Washington to work in “underutilized federal buildings,” which could help “bring more activity and vitality into the downtown,” was praised by Bowser during the news conference on Feb. 21.

Bowser emphasized revitalizing downtown again on Wednesday. 

“We have bigger fish to fry,” she said when pressed on the debate over the BLM plaza.  

“The threat to our city is: We came into this year with a pretty robust economy. We were concerned about vacancy in our downtown, but our trends were heading in the right direction because of our interventions,” Bowser said.

Her words come after D.C. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee worried in December 2024 that the district has faced economic “headwinds” due to thousands of federal employees working remotely, a policy implemented en masse during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Fewer workers means less economic activity, which ultimately leads to lower tax revenue growth,” Lee told lawmakers, adding that there were 100,000 to 250,000 fewer people commuting to Washington on any given day than before the pandemic. 

Bowser announced during a town hall for government employees Wednesday that the district was projected to have $325 million less in revenue due to the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce. She announced a new career hub providing resources to workers who had been fired, and she signaled some could gain positions in city government.

The mayor also reflected on ways to bring revenue levels up, a measure she has said Trump could help accomplish.

“How do we bring more jobs, more companies, and more economic activity to the district? We’re also focused on ways we can change the trajectory of those forecasts. You’ve heard me say this before, when the CFO was pessimistic about commercial activity and the value of commercial property. We got to working to try to change the trajectory. And the way that we did that was again investing in downtown activity so we can attract more employers, more workers, more entertainment, more activity,” she said.

BOWSER SIGNALS END OF BLM PLAZA AFTER GOP PUSH TO AXE FUNDING

Bowser expressed confidence that Trump, with his background as a real estate developer, can help the district make a comeback.

“I’ve always believed that President Trump viewed Washington from the eyes of a developer, and that was kind of how we approached him in his first term,” Bowser told reporters in February. “It turns out that he didn’t get that involved in real estate. But I think they’re more interested in that this term.”