All 800 National Guard troops officially deployed in DC amid Trump's federal takeover
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 offenses are in fact down.
"As of today, all 800 Army and Air National Guardsmen are mobilized... 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.
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 armory.
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.
01:40
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 "federalized" to be brought under presidential control, but in Washington these troops already report only to the US president.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
43 minutes ago
- Euronews
Trump-Putin Alaska summit: High stakes at historic meeting
As Donald Trump is hosting Vladimir Putin for a historic summit in Alaska, Ukraine and Europe are holding their breath for what the meeting can bring. For the US president, the summit represents an unprecedented opportunity to establish himself as a peacemaker and push Russia to a ceasefire. For Putin, this is a chance to change tack despite his unwillingness to engage in direct negotiations with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine's president has not been invited to the summit at the US military Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, but Trump hopes he will be present for the second round of talks. The question remains, will there be a second meeting after the negotiations in Alaska? Follow our live updates as Euronews journalists around Europe bring you the latest developments in the blog below:
France 24
43 minutes ago
- France 24
The Ukrainian land occupied by Russia at the heart of the Trump-Putin summit
Upon announcing he would be meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump threw a spanner in the works. As he explained in broad strokes that the Alaska summit with the Russian president would take place on August 15, he said 'there will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both' Ukraine and Russia – but didn't go into detail. Hours later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media that 'Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier'. Since Trump's contentious comment, speculation on whether his meeting with Putin will result in a radical and coercive change to Ukraine's borders has been rife. And even the use of the word 'exchange' is risky, as Russia currently controls almost 20 percent of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Kyiv has not occupied any Russian territory since March, when the Ukrainian army still had a partial hold on the Kursk region following a surprise offensive launched in August 2024. The power imbalance on the ground has meant there is little optimism for the outcome of the summit held by Putin and Trump in Alaska today. Especially seeing as Russian territorial demands seem clear, unlikely to change and represent a complete disadvantage for Ukraine. Those demands include Ukrainian land claimed by Russia since 2014. That year, in the span of a few months, Moscow took the Ukrainian government by surprise and left the West speechless by annexing the Crimean Peninsula. The capture of Crimea was followed by a similar operation led by Russian-backed separatists to take over parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (regions). Russian annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts in 2022 Following the annexation of Crimea, the so-called Donbas war between Russia and Ukraine lasted from 2014 to 2022 and claimed more than 14,000 lives on both sides, according to the UN. Then in February 2022, the conflict between the two countries took on new dimensions when Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine. At first, Moscow moved rapidly towards the capital, Kyiv. But the Russian army was met with resistance from Ukrainian forces. In the south and east of Ukraine, Russia took control of large swathes of land (see map below). Most of the Luhansk oblast was occupied by Russian forces, who extended their invasion into the Donetsk oblast, and also seized a large part of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. A few months later, Moscow proxies in the four regions organised an annexation 'referendum' and claimed victory – a move described by the West as a ' sham '. Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia now have the same unofficial status as Crimea. But neither Ukraine nor the international community have recognised the annexation. The war in Ukraine has taken tens of thousands of lives and caused irreversible damage to the country. And after three and a half years of fighting, there is no reconciliation on the horizon for either Ukrainian or Russian forces. Despite three rounds of peace talks in Istanbul, Kyiv and Moscow, an agreement has not been found. Ukraine and its western allies accuse the Kremlin of blocking negotiations by sticking to its maximalist demands, which include Kyiv surrendering Crimea and the four other regions it occupies. Meanwhile, Russia continues to gain ground on the battlefield. Ceding territory in exchange for a ceasefire? A recent proposal made to the US by Russia seems to be the reason the Trump-Putin summit is taking place at all, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. According to the US outlet, 'Putin's proposal would require that Ukraine hand over eastern Ukraine, a region known as the Donbas, without Russia's committing to much other than to stop fighting'. This would mean that Ukraine, which still controls parts of Luhansk and Donetsk that make up the Donbas, would surrender land that tens of thousands of soldiers have died trying to protect – places like Kramatorsk or Slovyansk. As for Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the Wall Street Journal reported: 'A US official said Putin called for pausing the war at current lines in both regions. Russia would then negotiate land swaps with Ukraine, aiming for full Moscow control of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. It couldn't be determined which territory Ukraine would receive in return.' If Ukraine were to cede these regions to Moscow, it would have full access to Crimea and control of the Sea of Azov, which has been under de facto Russian control since 2014. European allies of Ukraine, who were not invited to the summit in Alaska, voice their strong opposition against any cessation of Ukrainian territory. After meeting with Zelensky in Berlin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Ukraine is ready to negotiate ' on territorial issues ' but was adamant that legal recognition of Russian occupations 'would not be up for debate'. Zelensky has ruled out any withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the eastern regions as part of a peace deal. What's more, 82 percent of Ukrainians reject the demands made by Russia to cede land, according to a recent opinion poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. But the future of their country will, in part, be decided without them in Friday's talks.
Fashion Network
an hour ago
- Fashion Network
Trump tariffs a stone in the shoe of 'made in USA' cowboy boots
The manufacture of iconic "made in the USA" cowboy boots is set to suffer from President Donald Trump 's 30% tariffs on South African exports that came into force in August. Texas's most renowned makers of the southern US fashion staple source the ostrich leather they require exclusively from the small South African town of Oudtshoorn, 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Cape Town. Known as the world's "ostrich capital", Oudtshoorn is nestled in the semi-arid Little Karoo valley just inland from the southern coast and is home to a few hundred thousand people and about as many of the giant flightless birds. "We just don't know how bad the impact will be, but positive it wouldn't be," said ostrich farmer Laubscher Coetzee of the tariffs that kicked in after South Africa appeared unable to negotiate a new trade deal with Trump. More than half of the global supply of ostrich-derived products -- from feathers to leather and meat -- comes from nearly 200 farmers around Oudtshoorn who are joined in the Cape Karoo International (CKI) group, said its managing director Francois de Wet. South Africa as a whole supplies about 70% of the world's production, he said. Luxury handbag manufacturers in France and Italy are among the CKI's main clients. It also ships 20% of its ostrich leather to top Texas bootmakers such as Lucchese, Justin and Rios of Mercedes, whose boots are sold at several hundreds of dollars a pair. Ostrich is "an extremely important leather in our industry", Ryan Vaughan, CEO of the Rios of Mercedes manufacturer, told AFP. "It's very resilient, it forms to the foot," he said, wearing a typical cowboy hat. Coming from "a long line of cattle ranchers", his family brand was born in Texas in 1853 and employs 250 people. The tariffs "would make a dramatic impact in our business and in the western industry," he said, "because it's not just us that build a lot of cowboy boots out of ostrich leather". It is also the case of Tony Lama, an El Paso bootmaker supplied by CKI that has given a pair to every recent Republican president. Donald Trump received cowboy boots emblazoned with "MAGA" made out of "American alligator" skin, according to a press release. De Wet from the CKI said he believed the South African supply of ostrich leather to the US manufacturers did not run counter to a push by the Trump administration for production to be brought home. The United States did not have enough ostriches to provide the required leather, he said. "We export the raw material, the ostrich leather. They can't produce it from local ostriches in the US. They don't have them," he told AFP. "They do all the value-adding in the United States," he said. "So therefore, in terms of the pure definition of what the Trump administration would like to see, in this case, we do it already." The soft skins, recognisable by spots left by the large ostrich feathers, are currently sold to American manufacturers for around $20 a square foot. "We exported more than the usual volume of ostrich leather to the US in the past two-three months, so we have a little bit of a buffer," said de Wet. "For the moment we don't expect any layoffs in the short term," he said. But "in the long term, if we have to pick up the full tariff, it will definitely... cause a shrinkage of our business." The consumer could also not be expected to pay an extra 30% for the already pricey boots, he said. "So the tariff will have to be split between the exporter... and the importer, and preferably also a part paid by the end consumer." It is the unique climate of the Little Karoo, which gets less than 400 millimetres (nearly 16 inches) of rain a year, that makes it ideal for ostrich rearing, said Coetzee, a fourth-generation Oudtshoorn farmer. "That is the reason the ostrich industry is still here 200 years after (it started)," he said. His great-grandfather built the family home in 1896, when the price of ostrich feathers rivalled that of gold because of their value to the women's fashion industry. The extravagant "ostrich palaces" of the time are a reminder of the industry's previous major crisis, when the market collapsed in the early 1900s as the arrival of the low-roofed motor car ended the fashion for high-feathered hats. Copyright © 2025 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
