| Protests bubbled up outside the White House in Washington, DC, soon after President Donald Trump announced that he would send in the National Guard and take over the city's police force to tackle crime and homelessness. But the city remained largely quiet in the first 24 hours. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser responded in a press conference Monday afternoon. Bowser, who has taken a much more cautious tone with Trump than during his first administration, called the intrusion “unsettling and unprecedented” but said it would be difficult to legally challenge the president’s announcement under the special legal relationship between Washington and the district, known as “home rule.” In 2020, testifying before Congress when Trump deployed the National Guard the first time around, she said it would have been a “complete disaster” if the Trump administration had taken over the police department. Asked whether she still thought it was a disaster now, she said something that has epitomized her approach this time around: “I'm going to work every day to make sure it's not a complete disaster.” She proceeded to lay out what a “disaster” would look like, honing in on one of the key ingredients of good policing: building trust with the community. “It would be a disaster if communities won't talk to the police if a crime is committed and they could help solve that crime. That would be a disaster,” she said. “If people who aren't committing crimes are antagonized into committing crimes, that would be a disaster.” — Nicole Flatow | 
