WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed National Guard troops to begin carrying weapons while patrolling the streets of Washington as part of President Donald Trump’s intensified law enforcement measures, the Pentagon announced on Friday.
The Defense Department didn’t offer any other details about the new development or why it was needed.
The step is an escalation in Trump’s intervention into policing in the nation’s capital and comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members have been stationed in the heavily Democratic city, with the arrival this week of hundreds of troops from several Republican-led states.
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 states have sent troops to the city, growing the military presence.
It was unclear if the guard’s role in the federal intervention could 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 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 hell hole,” 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.
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.
