Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said President Donald Trump’s insistence that the city needs to clean up homeless encampments was not an order.
Trump told Bowser that she must clean up homeless encampments outside of the State Department and near the White House or they would be “forced to do it for her” in a Wednesday afternoon Truth Social post.
“If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her! Washington, D.C. must become CLEAN and SAFE! We want to be proud of our Great Capital again. Thank you Mayor Bowser for your efforts on behalf of the Citizens of our Country,” he said. “Hopefully you will be successful!”
When asked about Trump’s pointed notification on Thursday, Bowser demurred.
“They’re not ordering us to do anything,” she said.
Though Bowser refused to call the notification an order, her government sped up the clearing of an encampment, by the E Street Expressway near Virginia Avenue NW, after the notification. That encampment is near the State Department.
“We responded to the location identified,” she said, adding that there was no agreement with the administration when a staffer called her to tell her about Trump’s wishes. “I said ‘Thanks for the notice — we’ll take care of it.’”
The district already planned to speed up the clearing of several homeless encampments between Feb. 27 and March 13, a district spokeswoman told the Washington Post.
The mayor also said many of the encampments are on federal property, meaning the government is responsible for them, but that the district “is still here to help.” Bowser explained that the federal government does not have the same shelter system that Washington does.
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It is unclear whether the district followed the proper protocol in clearing the encampment. Residents of the encampment are supposed to be given two weeks’ notice, but some reportedly said they were only given 24 hours to clear out.
Scott Schenkelberg, president and CEO of Miriam’s Kitchen, told the outlet that clearing encampments can make it more difficult for homeless people to find housing: “Really all you’re doing by closing an encampment — unless there are obvious health and safety reasons to close an encampment — is hiding a problem and further causing trauma to the people living in the encampments.”
