Tennessee is sending 160 National Guard troops to Washington D.C. to assist President Donald Trump in his federal crackdown on crime in the nation's capital.
Elizabeth Johnson, a spokesperson for Gov. Bill Lee's office, in an Aug. 19 statement said the governor responded to the president's request to aid in the effort. She said the service members will deploy this week and will assist "as long as needed."
"These service members will join the D.C. Joint Task Force and work alongside local and federal law enforcement agencies to assist with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities, and traffic control," she said.
Tennessee is the latest in a handful of Republican-led states to send more than a thousand National Guard troops to help in a federal takeover of Washington D.C. Other states include Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio.
In an extraordinary move, the president on Aug. 11 ordered 800 National Guard troops and took temporary control of the city's police department to fight what he characterized as an epidemic of violent crime and homelessness.
Local officials, however, have rejected that notion and have pointed to data showing that the city's violent crime rates have dropped since 2023, though murder rates remains higher than most major U.S. cities.
The administration has also ordered other agencies, like the FBI, to assist. While it pushed for a takeover of the city's police department, it later negotiated a deal to keep Police Chief Pamela Smith in charge of operations.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he deployed about 135 Guard soldiers to Washington, while Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he had ordered 200.
"Crime is out of control there," Reeves said in a statement, "and it's clear something must be done to combat it."
Reuters contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee sends National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.
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