WASHINGTON — National Guard troops began arriving at the D.C. Armory on Tuesday to report for duty to carry out President Donald Trump’s directive to address crime in the nation’s capital.
The guard members, who entered the D.C. National Guard’s headquarters east of the U.S. Capitol dressed in their military uniforms, are part of a mobilization of about 800 soldiers the Army activated Monday to assist with law enforcement.
A senior Army official told NBC News that some troops were deploying with D.C. police Tuesday night. Their mobilization officially marks the beginning of the deployment, and all 800 soldiers should be operational and deployed at the end of the week.
Five military vehicles were parked in the shadow of the Washington Monument on Tuesday evening as tourists passed by. About a dozen guard members were milling about but did not engage with a reporter asking about their mission.
A defense official told NBC News that guard members will specifically be engaged in crowd management, perimeter control, security and communications support for law enforcement. The official said that in most cases, they won’t be carrying firearms.
While Trump’s memorandum said the mobilization would end once he determines that the “conditions of law and order have been restored in the District of Columbia,” the troops were notified they would be deployed until Sept. 25.
“Currently, the National Guard is being deployed to protect federal assets, provide a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests and deter violent crime with a visible law enforcement presence,” a White House official said Monday.
Standing alongside Trump as he announced the executive order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that people should expect to see the guard members “flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week” and that they were prepared to bring in other specialized units.
Trump’s memorandum also directed Hegseth to coordinate with governors across the country and “authorize the orders of any additional members of the National Guard to active service, as he deems necessary and appropriate, to augment this mission.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, struck a highly critical tone in remarks about Trump on Tuesday night, characterizing his actions as an “authoritarian push” during a virtual chat with community leaders, whom she encouraged “to jump in” and “protect our city” to “get to the other side of this guy.”
In an interview, Greggory Pemberton, chairman of the D.C. Police Union, expressed support for Trump’s moves, which included federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department. Pemberton said crime was still “ubiquitous” in the city, adding that while Trump’s order could be helpful in fighting crime, it would most likely have only a temporary impact without more far-reaching changes.
Pemberton argued that one of the main reasons local law enforcement “can’t get a handle on the crime” is a staffing shortage of more than 800 officer vacancies and said laws the City Council enacted “really prevent us from being able to do our job and being able to hold criminals accountable.”
“As a short-term, stopgap measure, if they want to give us 1,000 National Guard members and 500 federal agents to help us do our job, we’ll take it,” he said. “We’ll take anything we can to try to keep these criminals from victimizing citizens.”
Pemberton said he is concerned that if longer-term changes aren’t made, once federal agents and National Guard troops leave D.C., the police department “will be left holding the bag, which will only allow crime to again, you know, regain its foothold and start growing it again.”
Washingtonians’ reactions to Trump’s moves to take over the city were mixed. Denise Rucker-Krept, a Democrat and longtime resident of the neighborhood near where guard members are mobilizing, told NBC News on Tuesday that she agrees with Trump that the city has a crime problem, but she also doubted a short-term surge in law enforcement and the military presence would provide a sufficient fix.
“I say that because you can tell people not to commit crimes, you can arrest them, but if you do not prosecute them, then nothing happens,” Rucker-Krept said. She added that the City Council and the U.S. attorney’s office need to do more to prosecute those who commit crimes and hand down swift punishments that will serve as deterrents — including holding young people, who she said are a major part of the problem, accountable.
Violent crime in the district has decreased by 26% over the last year, according to police department statistics, though crime overall has gone down by only 7% during that same period.
Bowser said Monday that the city was able to reverse a crime spike in 2023.
“This year, crime isn’t just down from 2023, it’s also down from 2019 before the pandemic, and we’re at a 30-year violent crime low,” she said. But she added: “We’re not satisfied. We haven’t taken our foot off the gas, and we continue to look for ways to make our city safer.”
Bowser met Tuesday with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is overseeing the effort, and several other top Justice Department officials. Also present was Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole, whom Trump tapped to lead the police department.
Bondi called the meeting “productive” on X, adding that they agreed that the safety of residents and tourists in D.C. was a top priority.
Bowser told reporters after the meeting that Trump’s takeover of the police department will not change the force’s organizational chart or “how we do business.”
She emphasized that the city wanted to ensure it was using the new resources, saying she was focused on “the federal surge and how to make the most of the additional officer support that we have.”
“How we got here, or what we think about the circumstances right now, we have more police, and we want to make sure we’re using them,” she said.
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith, who also attended the meeting at the Justice Department, said at the news conference with Bowser, “You will see [the] Metropolitan Police Department working side by side with our federal partners in order to enforce the efforts that we need around the city.”
The deputy mayor for public safety and justice, Lindsey Appiah, told reporters that National Guard troops would not be making arrests in the city. Appiah said the city regularly works with the National Guard and will continue to “coordinate through the Metropolitan Police Department for any services that they’re providing during this time.”
Jim Lardner, who was in D.C. on Tuesday protesting Trump’s actions, said he thinks Trump is trying to distract the public from other issues his administration faces.
“The whole idea that there is some kind of a crisis of disorder in D.C. is a made-up phony story to distract attention from [a] deteriorating economy, from the ICE raids — which horrify even people who wanted action on immigration — and, of course, from the Epstein files. It’s all a game of diversion,” said Lardner, who was holding a “Resist” sign a few blocks north of the White House, where homeless people sometimes set up encampments.
“I think this administration would like to take over, not only D.C., but any state or jurisdiction that doesn’t completely bend the knee,” he added.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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