National Guard troops appear in DC as part of Trump show of force

National Guard troops have started showing up in the nation’s capital after President Trump activated them to patrol Washington’s streets, arguing that crime has gotten out of control.

The District of Columbia Army National Guard began patrolling the streets on Tuesday and a group of service members met with Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll. Several Guard forces and Humvees were seen near the Washington Monument on the National Mall, an area of the city generally seen as safe.

“The speed at which the troops are making it in is happening quicker. As we get enough soldiers in, they are tasked to help civilian law enforcement,” a defense official told The Hill’s sister network NewsNation. “As soon as tonight you’ll see soldiers out.”

Around 800 total National Guard members will work in shifts of about 200 each. The locations were drawn out by the police task force, another defense official told NewsNation.

Trump announced Monday at the White House that the Justice Department (DOJ) would take over oversight of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital under the city’s Home Rule Act.

The order has sparked pushback from other mayors, national Democrats and activists. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) used the federal takeover as a platform to again call for the District’s statehood on Tuesday.

“We have seen a precipitous lessening of crime in the city, violent crime, especially after a post-COVID spike that we acknowledge, and we got after, and we drove down the numbers in 2023. We reported last year the lowest level of violent crime in 30 years,” she said on “The Breakfast Club” radio show. “So, we’re not taking our foot off the gas.”

Others have stuck behind the president, including his former Attorney General Bill Barr.

“I think the president’s right on the money, and I think Judge Pirro laid out the case very well, and I’m glad she’s there, because she has the right idea of what needs to be done in this town,” Barr said on Fox News’s “America Reports,” while referring to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

The White House said that 23 people were arrested by federal officials Monday night for a wide variety of charges ranging from homicide and stalking to reckless driving and drug dealing, among others.

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