Trump orders 800 National Guard deployed in Washington DC mission
Photo:
Alex Wroblewski / AFP
All 800 National Guard troops who were ordered to the US capital Washington to aid law enforcement personnel by President Donald Trump have now been mobilised, the Pentagon says.
Trump ordered the deployment -- which follows a similar move during protests in Los Angeles in June -- as part of what he billed as
a crackdown on crime in Washington
, where violent offences are in fact down.
"As of today, all 800 Army and Air National Guardsmen are mobilised... as part of Joint Task Force DC, and they are now here in our capital," Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told journalists.
They "will assist the DC Metropolitan Police Department and federal law enforcement partners with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities and officers" and traffic control posts, Wilson said.
The troops "will remain until law and order has been restored in the District, as determined by the president," she added.
President Trump said he would place the city's Metropolitan Police under federal government control while also sending the National Guard onto the streets of the US capital.
Photo:
Jim Watson / AFP
The US Army later said the National Guard's initial mission "is to provide a visible presence in key public areas, serving as a visible crime deterrent".
"They will not arrest, search, or direct law enforcement," but they "have the authority to temporarily detain individuals to prevent imminent harm," the Army said in a statement.
The troops will be equipped with protective gear, it added, saying that weapons would be available if needed but would remain in the armoury.
Trump announced the National Guard deployment -- along with a federal takeover of the city's police department -- on Monday, vowing "to take our capital back".
The overwhelmingly Democratic
US capital faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime
, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.
However, data from Washington police shows significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.
The deployment of troops in Washington comes after Trump dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest in Los Angeles, California, that was spurred by immigration enforcement raids.
It was the first time since 1965 that a US president
deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor
.
Most National Guard forces answer to state governors and have to be "federalised" to be brought under presidential control, but in Washington these troops already report only to the US president.
- AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Trump administration weighing refugee cap of 40,000 with focus on white South Africans
By Ted Hesson , Reuters US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP / Pool / Christopher Furlong US President Donald Trump's administration is discussing a refugee admissions cap of around 40,000 for the coming year with a majority allocated to white South Africans, according to two US officials briefed on the matter and an internal refugee program email, reflecting a major shift in the US approach to refugees. Angie Salazar, the top refugee program official at the US Department of Health and Human Services, told state-level refugee workers that she expected the cap to be 40,000, according to an email summary of an 1 August meeting reviewed by Reuters. The two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some 30,000 of the 40,000 spaces would be devoted to Afrikaners, a largely Dutch-descended minority in South Africa that Trump has prioritized for resettlement. Trump's focus on resettling Afrikaners could upend the precedent around the refugee program, which for decades had bipartisan support. The 40,000-person cap would be a sharp drop from the 100,000 refugees brought in by former US President Joe Biden in fiscal year 2024, but higher than the record-low 15,000 person ceiling Trump set for fiscal 2021 before ending his first term. A separate person familiar with the matter said that in addition to the 40,000 figure, a cap as low as 12,000 had also been discussed. There are 37 million refugees worldwide, according to a United Nations estimate. Trump immediately froze refugee admissions after taking office in January, but weeks later launched a program for Afrikaners, saying the white minority group suffered racial discrimination and violence in majority-Black South Africa, claims that were rejected by South Africa's government. The Trump administration has wrestled internally over whether non-white South Africans could qualify for the refugee program, Reuters reported in July. In addition to Afrikaners, the Trump administration expects to bring in some Afghans who aided the US government during the conflict in Afghanistan and is weighing whether to resettle Ukrainians, the email said. Some spaces would remain unallocated to potentially be filled by other nationalities, the email and officials said. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly stressed that no decisions were final until Trump issued his determination for fiscal year 2026, which begins on 1 October. "President Trump has a humanitarian heart, which is why he has welcomed these courageous individuals to the United States," Kelly said. "Refugee admission caps will be determined next month, and any numbers discussed at this point are pure speculation." A senior State Department official pointed to the department's recent human rights report, which raised concerns about "inflammatory racial rhetoric against Afrikaners and other racial minorities" in South Africa. HHS referred questions related to the refugee cap to the White House. Salazar did not respond to requests for comment. The first group of 59 South Africans arrived in May, but only 34 more had come as of early August, a White House official said. The US State Department laid off many refugee program staffers in major workforce reductions in July. To compensate for the fired staff, workers from HHS who normally deal with domestic refugee assistance have been reassigned to the South Africa program, one of the officials said. Thirteen HHS staffers were dispatched to Pretoria on Monday even though the majority had no direct experience screening refugees, the official said. An HHS spokesperson said that trained staff had been detailed to support refugee resettlement but that they were not conducting interviews to determine whether a refugee had experienced persecution. Some South Africans now in the US with refugee status have reached out to HHS to raise concerns about a lack of benefits to support them, one of the US officials said. Trump slashed refugee benefits after taking office, including reducing cash assistance and healthcare benefits that normally last a year to four months. One of the initial group of 59 South Africans brought into the U.S. in mid-May sent an email to HHS refugee office two weeks later pleading for help getting a Social Security number and access to a work permit. The person, who went to Missoula, Montana, said their family had spent thousands of dollars to cover expenses. GǣWe have applied for jobs like crazy but to no avail because we found people here are not keen on hiring refugees without an SSN, one of the family members wrote in a 27 May email to the HHS refugee program reviewed by Reuters. GǣWe have spent about $4000 on Uber, food, Cellphone SIM Cards which don't work. The person was concerned the family would not be able to find housing after a government-funded hotel stay ended in early June. Reuters could not reach the family. The HHS spokesperson said the agency takes complaints seriously and that refugees placed in temporary housing receive support for essential needs, including food. A person familiar with the matter said some South Africans arrived in the US expecting standard refugee benefits that had been paused or reduced by Trump. - Reuters
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Ghislaine Maxwell's arrival at Texas prison camp sparks tension and restrictions
By Katelyn Polantz , CNN Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking minors following a trial in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Photo: AFP / Getty Images Ghislaine Maxwell's arrival to the federal prison camp in Bryan , Texas, this month has sent a shot of tension across its minimum-security all-female units, even while her lawyer says she's in a safer facility as there is intense political inquiry around Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring. While Maxwell's living conditions will be less restrictive in Bryan, it's still a difficult situation, where the Epstein conspirator won't get all the benefits of an easy or short stay that other inmates might, like access to puppies to train or the ability to leave the facility for work, according to more than a half dozen people familiar with the Bryan prison, the programmes and the inmates there. The inmates inside Bryan, who are largely non-violent white-collar offenders, were warned recently by prison staff to use discretion talking about Maxwell since she arrived, according to two people who represent inmates in the Bryan prison camp. "She's not making any friends," Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who works with clients at the prison camp, said to CNN this week. "Radioactive." The relaxed nature of the camp became more tense when Maxwell arrived, which is typical of high-profile inmates on the inside, Mangel said. "Nobody's going to rock the boat there. They want to serve the remainder of their sentences with whatever modicum of comfort Bryan provides," he added about other inmates. The Daily Telegraph wrote last week that a prisoner at Bryan said she was "disgusted" by Maxwell's transfer there, in a comment provided to the publication through the inmate's husband. Since that comment was published, prison officials pulled that inmate, Julie Howell, out of a puppy-training class in the camp then transferred her out of the facility, according to her lawyer. Howell is now at a federal detention center in Houston, the lawyer and Bureau of Prisons records say. "Nobody's going to say anything about Ghislaine Maxwell now, are you kidding?" Howell's lawyer Patrick McLain said to CNN on Thursday. Two inmates who were released from FPC Bryan in the past year haven't heard anything yet on how Maxwell is faring inside, or even which of the three units in the camp she is housed in. One of the recently released inmates, Jill Ford, told CNN she would have been concerned with Maxwell's presence there around visitation time. Many of the women inside the prison have children who visit them frequently, where the families are also able to be seen by other inmates in the visitation rooms. It's not known what level of visitation ability Maxwell has. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking minors following a trial in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, with a release date set for 12 years from now, according to federal prison and court records. This undated trial evidence image shows British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein. Photo: AFP / US District Court for the southern district of New York The infamous Epstein conspirator's transfer from a more restrictive prison in Florida to the prison camp in Texas also continues to raise questions this week around the Justice Department's reasons for her move and the treatment she may receive inside her new home. On Thursday, Maxwell's attorney David O Markus offered a reason: The transfer happened because Maxwell needed a "safer placement," according to a post he wrote on X. "I'm surprised to hear my progressive friends criticizing more humane prisons and Ghislaine's transfer to a safer facility, especially after she faced serious danger in Tallahassee," he wrote. "The outrage machine wants to turn a safer placement into a scandal." Maxwell would have been housed potentially around women convicted of violent crime in the low-security Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, where she was until earlier this month, according to people familiar with the BOP system. While the prison camp in Bryan is an even less-secure facility, designated as minimum-security by BOP, it houses non-violent offenders who largely have committed only white-collar federal crimes. It is highly unusual for a person convicted of a sex crime to be transferred to a federal prison camp, where women convicted of non-violent white-collar crime are able to move about relatively freely inside and bunk together in dormitory-style rooms. It's also usually not allowed for an inmate with as many years as Maxwell still had left on her sentence - more than 10 - to be allowed in a prison camp. Maxwell's attorney Markus declined to provide any additional information to CNN. Spokespeople from the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons haven't responded to multiple requests for comment this week. The unusual nature of Maxwell's transfer, coming after she spoke to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two days following a proffer agreement, has also caught the attention of Capitol Hill. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has requested more information from the Bureau of Prisons about her transfer and internal BOP designations. A spokesperson for Whitehouse said he hasn't received any new information as of Thursday (local time). Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, announces charges against Ghislaine Maxwell at a media conference in July 2020. Photo: AFP But just because Maxwell now has some of these lower designations doesn't mean she'll get full access to what the camp at Bryan has to offer. Some of the programmes inmates want to participate in may not take her. For instance, the work release programme at the Bryan prison camp trains certified nursing assistants, according to several people familiar with the prison camp. The program is run by the Southern Careers Institute, an education company that screens applicants from the prison and won't allow inmates with certain charges to take part in the programme if they apply, a person familiar with the program told CNN. Canine Companions, which places puppies in federal prisons for inmates to train as service dogs, explicitly said it wouldn't allow Maxwell into the puppy programme at the prison camp. Currently, there are seven puppies (Names: Kianda, Lisa VII, Louise V, Mavis IV, Hector VII, Gator V) paired with a total of 15 inmate handlers at FPC Bryan. The inmates keep the dogs with them from eight weeks to 17 months, teaching the puppies their first 20 or so tasks to use in service of people with disabilities, and the inmates groom, exercise and socialise the puppies inside the prison. Maxwell hasn't applied to the programme. But if she were to, the puppy programme wouldn't accept her. "We do not allow anyone who has committed crimes against animals or minors. That's because they're vulnerable populations," Paige Mazzoni, Canine Companions' CEO, told CNN. "The goal is to give the puppies love and enough confidence to continue to learn tasks." Two other high-profile inmates at FPC Bryan, Elizabeth Holmes the former CEO of Theranos and Jennifer Shah of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, aren't part of the puppy programme, either, Mazzoni said. - CNN
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
The US and Europe are still doing billions of dollars' worth of business with Russia despite years of war
By Lauren Kent, CNN A ship carrying Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) unloads gas in the port of Bilbao, Spain, on March 10, 2022. Photo: Vincent West/Reuters via CNN Newsource US President Donald Trump is threatening an additional 25 percent tariff on India as well as higher tariffs on other countries that buy Russian oil, in an attempt to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine . But the United States and Europe themselves are still doing billions of dollars in trade with Russia - although that's a fraction of the trade that took place before the war. India has argued that it's being unfairly targeted with the tariff increase, calling it "unjustified" given that other nations also do business with Moscow. Trade between Russia and the US has fallen by about 90 percent since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but last year, the US still imported US$3 billion worth of goods from Russia, according to the latest data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and Census Bureau. Meanwhile, the European Union - which has been the Americans' partner in sanctions against Russia - imported US$41.9 billion of goods from Russia in 2024, data from the bloc's statistics agency shows. "It's significant, but I think the more significant thing is how quickly the EU adjusted to reduce their dependency on Russia," said Kimberly Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a DC-based think tank. "They're making huge strides to further reduce how much they're getting from (Russia)." EU imports from Russia dropped by 86 percent between the first quarters of 2022 and 2025, according to Eurostat data. "I do think that there is a lot of opportunity for the US and even the EU to increase our trade with countries like Canada and get the products that we need from them," Donovan added. "That's where the trade wars and the negotiations over tariffs are really throwing things for a loop and are reducing our ability to be strategic in how we're approaching the Russia problem." As Trump prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska Friday, a top US official warned that India could see more tariffs coming their way if the talks don't go well. "We've put secondary tariffs on the Indians for buying Russian oil. And I can see if things don't go well, then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg. These are the areas where economic ties with Russia remain the strongest, for the US and Europe respectively. Fertilizer: The US imported US$927 million worth of fertilizer in the first half of this year, US Census Bureau data shows. Last year, fertilizer imports from Russia totaled more than US$1 billion. The US particularly relies on Russia for imports of three types of chemical fertilizers: urea, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) and potassium chloride muriate of potash, also called potash. "Unless the US sanctions Russian fertilizer imports, as it does with Belarusian potash, this (level of trade) is likely to continue," said Allan Pickett, head of fertilizer analysis at S&P Global Commodity Insights. "Russia remains one of the most important global fertilizer suppliers and the influence of it has not diminished since 2022." "Urea and potash could be readily sourced from elsewhere, although with potash it would further increase US dependence on Canada, which currently has an interesting trade dynamic," Pickett added. The Trump administration recently hiked tariffs on Canada to a minimum of 35 percent - unless goods are compliant with the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement - escalating ongoing trade tensions with its northern neighbor. Palladium: Although palladium imports from Russia have reduced significantly since 2021, data shows that the US still imported US$878 million worth of the metal in 2024 and US$594 million worth in 2025, through June. The silvery metal is used in various electronic and industrial products and it's a key component in the catalytic converters of cars. Uranium and plutonium: The US has imported US$755 million worth of uranium and plutonium from Russia so far this year, according to Census data through June. It imported US$624 million worth of those commodities from Russia in 2024. Oil: Russia was the largest supplier of petroleum to the European Union prior to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The EU has since imposed a ban on maritime Russian oil imports, as well as refined oil products, like diesel. As a result, oil imports to Europe fell to US$1.72 billion (€1.48 billion) for the first quarter of 2025, down from US$16.4 billion (€14.06 billion) in the same quarter of 2021, according to the most recent data from Eurostat. The top European importers of Russian fossil fuels in July 2025 were Hungary, France, Slovakia, Belgium and Spain, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an international research organization. Hungary and Slovakia accounted for the vast majority of crude oil imports, according to the analysis, while the others import mostly liquefied natural gas. Natural gas: The value of natural gas imports from Russia actually increased in the last four years as a result of price increases, growing to US$5.23 billion (€4.49 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, Eurostat data shows. However, the EU has slightly reduced Russia's market share of liquefied natural gas imports since 2021 - from 22 percent down to 19 percent in 2025 - while also greatly increasing the US market share. Iron and steel: Russia's share of iron and steel imports in the EU has dropped sharply. Iron and steel imports amounted to US$850 million (€730 million) in the first quarter of 2025 - about half of what they were in the same quarter in 2021, according to Eurostat. Fertilizer: Sanctions and import duties have not hit the fertilizer industry, and as a result, European imports of Russian fertilizer have changed very little since 2021. In the first quarter of 2025, EU countries imported US$640 million (€550 million) of Russian fertilizer, data shows. Nickel: The EU has diversified imports to rely more on nickel from the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom and Canada. Still, the bloc imported US$300 million (€260 million) worth of nickel from Russia in the first quarter of 2025. Nickel is primarily used to make stainless steel and other alloy steels, as well as batteries. Beyond imports and exports of commodities, many Western companies remain entrenched in Russia. Some notable American-based holdouts continue to operate in Russia, including top 100 companies, according to lists compiled by the Yale School of Management and the Kyiv School of Economics Institute. Dozens of European businesses, including consumer-facing brands, retailers and software companies, have also remained in Russia. The amount of tax revenue that Western companies generate for the Kremlin is relatively small, but analysts say the companies that remain have allowed aspects of normal life to continue for the Russian population. Corporate exits serve to bring the war closer to the Russian people and confront their "complacency," as well as make it more difficult for Putin to paint a picture of a well-functioning economy, said Yale School of Management's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, whose large team of researchers keeps track of which companies have left. "It's an imploding market - it was never an economic superpower to start with - which is just a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of bravado on the part of Putin to try to create an aura of something bigger," Sonnenfeld told CNN. In contrast to the reduction in trade with Moscow seen in the United States and EU, India imported $67 billion worth of goods from Russia in 2024, according to data aggregated by the United Nations. Roughly $53 billion worth of that was petroleum oils and crude oil. Before the full-scale war, in 2021, India imported US$8.7 billion worth of goods from Russia. India's imports of Russian oil and gas have skyrocketed since before the war began. Russian oil now makes up 36 percent of the Indian market, according to Vortexa, an energy data firm, meaning it imports more crude oil from Russia than from anywhere else. China has also ramped up purchases of Russian crude oil following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Its price fell after Western countries sharply scaled back their imports of Russian fuel. Russia now accounts for 13.5 percent of China's crude imports, according to Vortexa. China imported roughly $130 billion in Russian goods in 2024, including $62.6 billion of petroleum oils and crude, the UN-aggregated data shows. - CNN
