Trump calls DC mayoral frontrunner Janeese Lewis George a communist, vows meeting

Summary

Donald Trump spent part of his Sunday on social media targeting Janeese Lewis George, the Washington D.C. Council member who just won the Democratic mayoral primary with 54.1 percent of the vote and is effectively the city's next mayor given D.C.'s political math. Trump called her a 'communist' and pledged he would not let her 'destroy' the city, while also saying he intends to meet with her directly. George ran on a platform that included universal childcare and taxpayer-funded housing, and her policy positions on ICE enforcement, cashless bail, and sanctuary city protections put her on a collision course with the administration before she has even taken office. The confrontation is shaping up as something genuinely unusual: a standoff between a sitting president and the mayor of a city that operates under federal oversight in ways no other American city does. Congress holds ultimate authority over the District's budget and laws, which gives Trump levers most governors never have to worry about. Whether he uses them, and how George responds, will test the limits of home rule that D.C. Has exercised since 1973. The meeting Trump promised, if it happens, will be one of the more charged sit-downs in recent D.C. Political history.