WASHINGTON — National Guard troops stationed in Washington this month to aid President Donald Trump’s crime reduction efforts will begin carrying firearms Sunday evening, as reported by a Defense Department official familiar with the plan.

Most of the guard members will be equipped with M17 pistols, their standard service weapons, the official said, while a few troops will carry their service M4 rifles. The weapons are authorized for self-defense purposes.

On Sunday evening, several armed National Guard troops were observed patrolling D.C.’s Chinatown area, wearing patches labeled “MP” to denote their military police role.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized approximately 2,000 National Guard troops in D.C. to carry weapons on Friday, signaling a change in their posture as they had previously been unarmed while assisting law enforcement with community safety patrols, traffic controls, and managing crowd movement.

In response to Hegseth’s order, the Army stated that “Guard members receive initial, ongoing, and refresher training” and “complete yearly weapons qualifications prior to carrying weapons.”

According to a White House official, the National Guard troops in D.C., although armed, are not conducting arrests as of Saturday night. Their focus remains on safeguarding federal assets and ensuring a secure environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests.

More than 2,200 National Guard soldiers and airmen, a majority from out of state, have been deployed to D.C. to support what Trump has framed as a concerted effort to tackle crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital. At the time of the initial troop deployment this month, violent crime had dropped roughly 27% year over year, according to D.C. police data.

Democrats have bashed the deployment as partisan in nature, accusing Trump of trying to exert his presidential authority through scare tactics and noting that his primary targets have been cities with Black leadership.

Trump threatened Sunday to send the military into Baltimore after he sparred with Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, deriding the city as “crime-ridden.”

“But if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Deploying the National Guard to cities like D.C. is historically uncommon, as the force is typically used to respond to situations like natural disasters and civil unrest.