WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered National Guard troops to start carrying firearms while patrolling the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump’s law enforcement crackdown, the Pentagon said Friday.
The Defense Department didn’t offer any other details about the new development or why it was needed. Hegseth referred to it as “common sense” on social media.
No troops have been spotted yet with firearms around the city in the hours after the announcement. The decision is an escalation in the Republican administration’s intervention in the nation’s capital and comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members have been stationed in the heavily Democratic city.
Some local officials were harshly critical, with D.C. Council Member Charles Allen saying Trump’s actions are “not of a president, but of someone on the march to an authoritarian takeover.”
Trump initially called up 800 members of the District of Columbia National Guard to assist federal law enforcement in his bid to crack down on crime, homelessness and illegal immigration. Since then, six Republican-led states have sent troops to the city, growing the military presence.
It’s unclear how long the deployment will last.
“If I have to, I’ll declare a national emergency, which I don’t think I’ll have to do,” Trump said.
He suggested that he could take a similar approach in other cities, such as Chicago and maybe New York.
“After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also,” Trump said in the Oval Office. Referring to Chicago as “a mess,” he said, “that will be our next one after this.”
There were no signs that the National Guard’s role in D.C. would be changing. The troops have not taken part in law enforcement and largely have been protecting landmarks including the National Mall and Union Station and helping with crowd control.
Some troops have fed squirrels. One Guard member helped a woman carry her belongings down the stairs in a train station. Others have been seen taking photos with passers-by, standing around chatting and drinking coffee. There have been no overt indications that they have faced threats that would require weapons.
Trump has boasted that the city is safer than ever because of his intervention. He told reporters Friday that “it’s a miracle what’s happened.”
“D.C. was a hellhole,” he said. “But now it’s safe.”
He suggested that he could prolong the deployment of troops and federal agents in Washington.
“The big question is how long do we stay?” he said. “Because if we stay, we want to make sure it doesn’t come back. So we have to take care of these criminals and get them out.”
Trump noted that he would ask Congress for $2 billion to improve the appearance of the city, including resurfacing roads and replacing streetlights. He’s previously pledged to improve the grass to look like one of his golf courses.
“It’s going to be safe, and it’s going to be beautified,” he said.
Trump’s decision to seek more money for sprucing up Washington comes months after the Republican-controlled Congress passed legislation that essentially forced a $1.1 billion budget cut on the city. Local leaders have pleaded for a fix, but to no avail.
The Pentagon and the Army had said last week that troops would not carry guns. The new guidance is that they will carry their service-issued weapons.
Alex Wagner, a former chief of staff to the Army secretary and assistant secretary for the Air Force during Democratic administrations, said asking troops to carry firearms is a “recipe for disaster.”
He said most National Guard members don’t have the right training for Trump’s law enforcement crackdown and are being put in a “no-win situation.”
“Do they have any role that would require them to have firearms? No,” he said.
However, Wagner said, if there are confrontations, “the White House can spin that to their political advantage.”
The city’s police department and the offices of Mayor Muriel Bowser and Attorney General Brian Schwalb did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
As a federal district, the city government’s powers are broadly delegated to it by Congress, providing few avenues to formally resist Trump’s plans. Local officials have been walking a tightrope between acknowledging constituents’ concerns and antagonizing Trump, who has threatened even more aggressive action toward D.C.
City Council Chair Phil Mendelson wrote on social media that he had discussed the effects of “the so-called crime emergency” and other topics at a town hall Thursday night, while Council Member Brianne Nadeau posted a link to report police misconduct to city officials.
The city had been informed about the intent for the National Guard to be armed, a person familiar with the conversations said earlier this week. The person was not authorized to disclose the plans and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Spokespeople for the District of Columbia National Guard and a military task force overseeing all the guard troops in Washington did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
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Associated Press writers Matthew Brown, Ashraf Khalil and Anna Johnson contributed to this report.
