Formally declaring a public safety emergency, Trump claimed the deployment is part of a city-wide effort to combat violent crime such as homicides, robberies and burglaries ā even as such crimes have sharply fallen over the past two years.
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āThis is liberation day in D.C. and weāre going to take our capital back,ā Trump said at a wide-ranging White House press conference in which he also declared he was putting the cityās police department under federal control.Ā
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āIām deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C., and theyāre going to be allowed to do their job properly.ā
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The move quickly drew the outrage of local and Congressional Democrat lawmakers, who decried the move as unnecessary, āunsettlingā and a ābrazen power grab,ā even as those in the GOP applauded it.
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InĀ an official memoĀ to Defense SecretaryĀ Pete Hegseth,Ā Trump said he was invoking Constitutional law to deploy the hundreds of Guardsmen across the city, citing recent high-profile crimes in the city.
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The memoās text directs Hegseth to mobilize the D.C. National Guard and āin such numbers as he deems necessary, to address the epidemic of crime in our Nationās capital.āĀ
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The orderās wording also allows for possible additional Guard deployments from other states, as Hegseth is told to coordinate with state governors for any extra Guardsmen āas he deems necessary and appropriate, to augment this mission.ā
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āThere are other units we are prepared to bring in, other National Guard units, other specialized units,ā Hegseth said during the press conference.
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The document does not set a timeline for the Guardās deployment, only noting that their mobilization and duration of duty āshall remain in effect until [Trump determines] that conditions of law and order have been restored in the District of Columbia.ā
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The troops will be in a Title 32 status, meaning they are under local authority but are federally funded and not subject to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits U.S. service members from taking part in law enforcement activities.
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In a statement released later Monday, Army officials said the D.C. National Guard soldiers will be activated to help with administrative and logistical tasks in addition to providing āphysical presence in support of law enforcement.ā
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Even as hundreds of Guard troops will be in the city, only between 100 and 200 soldiers will be supporting law enforcement at any given time.Ā
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Operational details, including where the soldiers will physically be assigned and what their command-and-control will be, have not been released and are likely still being worked out.
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When they might be seen around the city is also unclear, though Hegseth said during the press conference that Guardsmen will be āflowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week.āĀ
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Read the full report at TheHill.com.
