Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who has denied crime is out of control in her city, described the troop deployment as an "authoritarian push". Trump, a Republican, has also threatened similar deployments against New York and Chicago, two other cities controlled by Democrats.

Little sympathy emerged online for Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat who continues to tread a fine line between pushing back against Trump and Republicans’ criticism of her administration and leadership of the city and a desire to not provoke further repudiation from the federal government.