Latest news with #DaveButler
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
DC troop numbers expected to increase as Trump pushes to extend federal takeover despite dropping crime figures
The number of federal troops descending on Washington, D.C., is set to increase as President Donald Trump pushes to extend the city's federal takeover despite crime declining in recent years. Trump announced Monday he was placing the D.C. police department under direct federal control and deploying the National Guard to 'rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.' National Guard troops started hitting D.C. streets Tuesday evening, and over the coming days, there will be between 100 and 200 soldiers out patrolling at any given time, The New York Times reported, citing Army spokesman Colonel Dave Butler. In total, about 800 troops are expected to be deployed. There have been at least 66 arrests made since the federal takeover began, according to the Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said 23 people were arrested Monday evening, and FBI Director Kash Patel said 43 more arrests were made as of early Wednesday morning. The D.C. takeover is supposed to last for 30 days, but in a speech at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, Trump said he wants to extend federal control of local police. 'If it's a national emergency we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly,' Trump said. Trump claimed on Monday D.C. 'has been taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.' But the violent crime rate went down by 35 percent in 2024 after peaking in 2023, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. in January. It said violent crime was at a 30-year low, with homicides down by 32 percent, robberies down 39 percent, armed carjackings down by 53 percent, and assaults with a dangerous weapon down 27 percent. D.C. police say violent crime for 2025 is down 26 percent as of Wednesday. Mayor Muriel Bowser has criticized the federal takeover, calling the move 'unsettling and unprecedented,' and even 'authoritarian.' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would not grant an extension to the D.C. takeover if Trump asked the Republican-controlled Congress for one. 'No f***ing way,' he told journalist Aaron Parnas in a Wednesday interview. 'We'll fight him tooth and nail.' Trump has also floated the idea of expanding his efforts to other major cities. 'We are going to do something and it's going to serve as a beacon for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other places all over the country,' he said in his Kennedy Center speech.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
DC troop numbers expected to increase as Trump pushes to extend federal takeover despite dropping crime figures
The number of federal troops descending on Washington, D.C., is set to increase as President Donald Trump pushes to extend the city's federal takeover despite crime declining in recent years. Trump announced Monday he was placing the D.C. police department under direct federal control and deploying the National Guard to 'rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.' National Guard troops started hitting D.C. streets Tuesday evening, and over the coming days, there will be between 100 and 200 soldiers out patrolling at any given time, The New York Times reported, citing Army spokesman Colonel Dave Butler. In total, about 800 troops are expected to be deployed. There have been at least 66 arrests made since the federal takeover began, according to the Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said 23 people were arrested Monday evening, and FBI Director Kash Patel said 43 more arrests were made as of early Wednesday morning. The D.C. takeover is supposed to last for 30 days, but in a speech at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, Trump said he wants to extend federal control of local police. 'If it's a national emergency we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly,' Trump said. Trump claimed on Monday D.C. 'has been taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.' But the violent crime rate went down by 35 percent in 2024 after peaking in 2023, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. in January. It said violent crime was at a 30-year low, with homicides down by 32 percent, robberies down 39 percent, armed carjackings down by 53 percent, and assaults with a dangerous weapon down 27 percent. D.C. police say violent crime for 2025 is down 26 percent as of Wednesday. Mayor Muriel Bowser has criticized the federal takeover, calling the move 'unsettling and unprecedented,' and even 'authoritarian.' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would not grant an extension to the D.C. takeover if Trump asked the Republican-controlled Congress for one. 'No f***ing way,' he told journalist Aaron Parnas in a Wednesday interview. 'We'll fight him tooth and nail.' Trump has also floated the idea of expanding his efforts to other major cities. 'We are going to do something and it's going to serve as a beacon for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other places all over the country,' he said in his Kennedy Center speech.
The Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
DC troop numbers expected to increase as Trump pushes to extend federal takeover despite dropping crime figures
The number of federal troops descending on Washington, D.C., is set to increase as President Donald Trump pushes to extend the city's federal takeover despite crime declining in recent years. Trump announced Monday he was placing the D.C. police department under direct federal control and deploying the National Guard to 'rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.' National Guard troops started hitting D.C. streets Tuesday evening, and over the coming days, there will be between 100 and 200 soldiers out patrolling at any given time, The New York Times reported, citing Army spokesman Colonel Dave Butler. In total, about 800 troops are expected to be deployed. There have been at least 66 arrests made since the federal takeover began, according to the Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said 23 people were arrested Monday evening, and FBI Director Kash Patel said 43 more arrests were made as of early Wednesday morning. The D.C. takeover is supposed to last for 30 days, but in a speech at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, Trump said he wants to extend federal control of local police. 'If it's a national emergency we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly,' Trump said. Trump claimed on Monday D.C. 'has been taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.' But the violent crime rate went down by 35 percent in 2024 after peaking in 2023, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. in January. It said violent crime was at a 30-year low, with homicides down by 32 percent, robberies down 39 percent, armed carjackings down by 53 percent, and assaults with a dangerous weapon down 27 percent. D.C. police say violent crime for 2025 is down 26 percent as of Wednesday. Mayor Muriel Bowser has criticized the federal takeover, calling the move 'unsettling and unprecedented,' and even 'authoritarian.' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would not grant an extension to the D.C. takeover if Trump asked the Republican-controlled Congress for one. 'No f***ing way,' he told journalist Aaron Parnas in a Wednesday interview. 'We'll fight him tooth and nail.' Trump has also floated the idea of expanding his efforts to other major cities. 'We are going to do something and it's going to serve as a beacon for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other places all over the country,' he said in his Kennedy Center speech.
Business Insider
17-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Tech execs are joining the Army — no grueling boot camp required
Four top tech execs from OpenAI, Meta, and Palantir have just joined the US Army — no obstacle courses, shouted orders, or grueling marches required. The Army Reserve has commissioned these senior tech leaders to serve as mid-level officers, skipping tradition to pursue transformation. The newcomers won't attend any current version of the military's most basic and ingrained rite of passage— boot camp. Instead, they'll be ushered in through express training Army leaders are still hashing out, said Col. Dave Butler, a spokesman to the Chief of Staff of the Army, in a phone interview with Business Insider. "They'll do marksmanship training, physical training, they'll learn the Army rank structure and history, and uniforms," Butler explained. Of the boot camp-lite plans, "you could think of it as a pilot," he said, adding that the new soldiers are a part of the Army's larger effort to rapidly modernize. The execs — Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer for Palantir; Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer of Meta; Kevin Weil, chief product officer at OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, advisor at Thinking Machines Lab and former chief research officer for OpenAI — are joining the Army as lieutenant colonels, according to an Army press statement as part of an effort to turbocharge tech innovation and adoption. The service's decision to allow the four to skip "direct commissioning" boot camp, a shortened version of regular officer boot camp, is unusual, though not without historical precedence, Butler said. "The Army has allowed the direct commission of civilians since 1861 to bring experts with critically needed skills into the force," he wrote in an email to BI. William Atterbury, the president of the American Railway Association, received a direct commission into the Army in 1917 and served as the director-general of transportation for Allied Expeditionary Forces in France. Other notable examples include the president of the Columbia Gas and Electric Corporation of New York, Edward Reynolds, who commissioned as an Army colonel to serve as chief of the Medical Supply Service during World War II, and General Motors leader, William Knudsen, who direct commissioned as a lieutenant general and became the director of production for the War Department. The new tech lieutenant colonels will have to adhere to Army standards, Butler said, and will be expected to perform the service's annual fitness test to stay in good standing. They will spend around two weeks per year working, roughly the minimum required for military reservists. The name of their unit, "Detachment 201" is named for the "201" status code generated when a new resource is created for Hyper Text Transfer Protocols in internet coding, Butler explained. "In this role they will work on targeted projects to help guide rapid and scalable tech solutions to complex problems," read an Army press release. "By bringing private-sector know-how into uniform, Det. 201 is supercharging efforts like the Army Transformation Initiative, which aims to make the force leaner, smarter, and more lethal." Lethality, a vague Pentagon buzzword, has been at the heart of the massive modernization and transformation effort the Army is undergoing to build a force that is capable of fighting and winning 21st-century conflicts. The Army isn't currently planning a second wave of direct commission industry leaders and still has to get these new additions through an express version of basic training, though more similar iterations are expected down the road, Butler said, noting increased interest from other private sector leaders. It is common for the services to bring aboard officers at mid-level ranks — the vast majority of military officers join as second lieutenants, or at the rank of O-1. Historically, chaplains, veterinarians, and medical providers have been allowed to join the Army at slightly higher ranks. Other recent initiatives allow for a wider variety of commissions for highly skilled civilian workers from tech and cyber sectors, in some cases up to the rank of colonel, one level below a general.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Army to eliminate 2 Security Force Assistance Brigades, reassign experienced soldiers
The Army plans to shutter two of its Security Force Assistance Brigades, formations stood up nearly eight years ago to train and advise the militaries of American partners and allies, according to officials. Army officials confirmed to Task & Purpose that the 4th and 54th Security Force Assistance Brigades, or SFABs, will be closed, though no timetable for the move has been announced, leaving the Army with four remaining brigades. The 4th SFAB, based at Fort Carson, Colorado, concentrates its missions in Europe, while the 54th is an Indiana-based National Guard unit that augments active duty SFAB units across the world. A senior Army official told Task & Purpose that the move will free up seasoned soldiers from SFAB duty to be reassigned to traditional line units like infantry and armor. SFAB units are, by design, heavy on soldiers who are already several years into their Army careers. 'The reason that we're cutting those is to make room for or get more noncommissioned officers into the force. That's where we're hurting the most,' said Col. Dave Butler, spokesperson for the Army Chief of Staff. 'We're trying to fill the ranks up of the operational force and we have a lot of NCOs and junior officers in the SFAB formations.' When Army officials looked at the mission of the two units, they decided there were 'redundancies' in their missions, particularly in 4th SFAB's focus on Europe, according to Butler. 'We need more soldiers, noncommissioned officers, and officers in squads, platoons and companies,' he said. Since their inception in 2017, soldiers assigned to SFABs have worn distinctive brown berets and specialized in training conventional forces of U.S. allies and partner nations, like how to operate together in different environments, use certain types of military equipment, or employ certain tactics for their own forces. The units are mostly concentrated on working with partners from geographical regions in the Middle East, South America and Asia, where many U.S. allies train smaller and sometimes less professional militaries. The move to shutter the units was laid out in an Army executive order issued last week. The order did not include a timeline or specifics on the changes, but Butler said the Army is going to establish operational planning teams to work out details of the unit closures. Butler said the mission of the 4th SFAB is not needed for the relationship the Army has with partners in Europe. Since the invasion of Ukraine, the 4th SFAB has supported training for Ukrainian armed forces outside of the country and worked on improving cooperation among European and NATO allies. 'These are long-term existing relationships. We've been training together, building together for decades without the SFAB,' Butler said. 'Where we envision SFABs to be is in a place where those relationships and that training didn't exist or needed to be bolstered — but Europe is not a place like that.' The Army stood up the first of the six SFAB units in 2017 to advise Afghan, Iraqi, and Peshmerga forces. The concept of a brigade dedicated to military training was later expanded to support other U.S. partner forces. In the unit's early days, officials acknowledged that the Army had trouble recruiting soldiers for the SFAB because of a 'negative association' with similar efforts like the transition teams that trained Iraqi security forces and the Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands program. There are no plans to stand down the other SFAB units, Butler said, adding that the Army is focusing on 'prioritizing the traditional operational force.' Soldiers with 1st SFAB at Fort Benning, Georgia work with partners in South America; 2nd SFAB at Fort Bragg, North Carolina train with African nations; 3rd SFAB, based at Fort Cavazos, Texas, work with Middle Eastern partners; 5th SFAB at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington work with countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The 4th SFAB consists of fewer than 1,000 soldiers, according to an Army official familiar with the plan. That official told Task & Purpose that shutting down the 4th SFAB could impact the 10th Special Forces Group, which is also based out of Fort Carson and focused on Europe. Similar to the SFAB's mission to train and advise U.S. allies, Special Forces soldiers are also tasked with training American allies. 'I'm pretty sure [10 SFG] in some respect, maybe appreciated the SFAB being there because some of that stuff, that's the low-hanging fruit of partner-partner and ally work that SFAB is doing,' the official said. The 54th SFAB is authorized at a strength of roughly 800 soldiers who provide teams of roughly four to 12 National Guardsmen to augment active duty SFAB missions. They have also deployed as advisors to response teams for hurricanes, power outages and floods. They are headquartered in Indiana with battalions in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio and Illinois. No plans have been announced on where the 54th's Guardsmen might be reassigned or offered other positions. The 54th SFAB was stood up as a National Guard unit specifically designed to pull uniquely qualified soldiers from across the country. In fact, it was designated as the 54th to match the 50 states and four U.S. territories, '75% of which are represented in our brigade right now,' the unit's Command Sgt. Maj. John Hoffman told Task & Purpose. In their civilian roles, he said, his soldiers are doctors, lawyers, and federal agents with the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Agency. They even include a municipal judge. 'It's a wide swath of America inside of that brigade and the reason it's that way is because people come from all over the United States to join the brigade,' he said, adding that as National Guard members they skew older, meaning they understand risk better and have unique civilian experiences that pay off when advising partner nations. For instance, soldiers from his unit with experience working for Amazon and Walmart joined a mission in Moldova to help teach their forces about logistics. 'There's nobody on any component of the Army that can tell you more about getting material in someone's hand than Amazon or Walmart,' he said. 'How do you replicate that anywhere else?' Hoffman said SFABs are soldiers from conventional forces that teach skills 'unconventionally' to foreign militaries. 'We teach it in an unconventional way because we don't put an entire battalion on the ground to do it,' Hoffman said. 'We put 12 bubbas and bubba-ettes on the ground to do it, and they come up with some innovative ways in order to teach these skills to our partners all around the world, bridging language and cultural gaps.' SFABs were an initiative created under Gen. Mark Milley, the former Army Chief of Staff, who became embroiled in politics during President Donald Trump's first term in office when he served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Army infantry officer calls new XM7 'unfit for use as a modern service rifle' Attempted Fort Leavenworth prison break leaves military inmate tangled on fence When Americans, Germans and POWs fought the SS from the walls of a castle This Army combat medic fought off an active shooter and rendered first aid This 53 aircraft 'elephant walk' has everything you'd need for a war in the Pacific
