Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. rejoiced at President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is taking over Washington, D.C.’s law enforcement in order to make America’s capital city safe again.
However, one big-city GOP mayor isn’t on board.
“My family went to DC in 2024 and 2025 as visitors and walked all over town, enjoying wonderful, safe visits,” Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt posted on X, above a tweet from D.C.‘s progressive mayor, Muriel Bowser.
“Crime has been falling in DC for years, and that same story is playing out right now in virtually every large American city,” Holt continued. “Much credit goes to the men and women of law enforcement, city leaders and mayors for pursuing effective policies and investments.”
“Local control is working and always produces the best results,” he added.
Holt doubled down on his opposition to Trump’s policies in his role as the President of the United States Conference of Mayors.
“America’s mayors never see takeovers by other levels of government as a tactic that has any track record of producing results. Local control is always best,” he said. “A partnership – not a takeover – will produce the best outcomes for the people of Washington and the city’s many visitors.”
Holt’s faith in Bowser puts him at odds with virtually his entire political party and aligns him squarely with some of the far-left Democrats who are looking to succeed Trump in 2028.
Gov. Wes Moore (D., Md.) called Trump’s moves “deeply dangerous,” and Gov. JB Pritzker (D., Ill.) likened them to Nazi Germany with no evidence.
“My mayor is a complete fucking moron,” one of his constituents told the Washington Reporter. “He’s trying to gaslight everyone.”
Holt’s alignment with Bowser continues his positioning towards the left-most fringes of the GOP.
He previously boasted about meeting with Oklahoma City’s Black Lives Matter chapter and has a history of attacking Trump on social media as low-class and claimed that he “talks like a dictator.” Holt also condemned Trump’s “liberalism, crudeness, [and] incompetence.”
Holt’s defense of Bowser isn’t the only time he’s sabotaged his political party. The OKC mayor was a rare GOP mayor who flew to D.C. to defend President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, going so far as to appear at the bill’s signing.
Another lifetime Oklahoman told the Reporter that longtime residents of the state’s capital “know he’s a phony,” in contrast with the “transplants [who] love Mayor Holt.”
“The mayor is a figurehead, they don’t actually do anything,” she explained. “He just signs his name on documents and photos that he didn’t even have anything to do with.”
“He claims he did all this great stuff for the Thunder but that’s a board and trustees, not the fucking mayor,” she continued.
Residents of both political parties told the Reporter that D.C. has increasingly resembled a scene out of Silence of the Lambs more than the capital of the free world.
While Holt cited the falling crime statistics in D.C., many have noted that the city’s crime reporting system itself is erroneous and skewed towards minimizing the severity of crime throughout the city.