National Guardsmen patrolling Washington, D.C., as part of President Donald Trump's purported crackdown on crime will soon be armed, the Pentagon said Friday.
"At the direction of the secretary of defense, JTF-DC members supporting the mission to lower the crime rate in our nation's capital will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons, consistent with their mission and training," the Pentagon said in an emailed statement, using an acronym for Joint Task Force-District of Columbia.
The statement provided few other details on the decision to arm Guardsmen, including what weapons they will carry, when exactly they will start carrying weapons, and why they need to be armed.
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Asked separately about the decision, a spokesperson for the task force would say only that they were aware of reports but that, as of right now, Guardsmen are not armed.
The decision to allow Guardsmen to carry weapons on the streets of D.C. marks an escalation in Trump's policing takeover of the capital. When Trump first announced he would deploy the Guard in D.C., officials had stressed that troops would not be armed.
Incorrectly claiming D.C. is facing a crime wave, Trump last week mobilized 800 members of the D.C. National Guard, deployed hundreds of federal law enforcement members on city streets, and moved to federalize the local D.C. police force.
The Guard deployment has since ballooned to about 2,000 troops as Republican governors from six states have sent hundreds of members of their National Guards to the capital.
Guardsmen have mostly been patrolling tourist areas not known for high crime rates, such as the National Mall and a transit hub near Capitol Hill called Union Station, as well as several Metro stations throughout the city. In recent days, they have also been spotted expanding across the city in areas popular for dining and socializing, such as near the Nationals Park baseball stadium.
In its statement on the decision to authorize carrying weapons, the Pentagon said the commander of the D.C. National Guard "retains the authority to make any necessary force posture adjustments in coordination with the D.C. Metropolitan Police and federal law enforcement partners."
"The D.C. National Guard remains committed to safeguarding the District of Columbia and serving those who live, work and visit the District," the statement said.
The federal takeover of D.C. has become a major talking point of the Trump administration, with Attorney General Pam Bondi posting daily updates on social media about total arrests and top administration officials doing photo ops with troops and police.
Trump himself, after suggesting earlier in the day he would be going on patrol with police and troops, on Thursday evening briefly visited a Park Police station to address federal law enforcement officers and Guardsmen and hand out pizza.
"You got to be strong. You got to be tough," Trump, who also suggested the Guard deployment could last six months, told the group. "You got to do your job. Whatever it takes to do your job."
Trump has also suggested he will continue escalating by deploying troops to other Democratic-run cities such as Chicago and New York City, and possibly use active-duty troops.
"We haven't had to bring in the regular military, which we're willing to do if we have to," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. "And after we do this, we'll go to another location, and we'll make it safe also."
Active-duty troops are generally banned from conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil under a law called the Posse Comitatus Act, though there are exceptions such as invoking a separate law called the Insurrection Act. During his first term, Trump toyed with invoking the Insurrection Act amid racial justice protests in 2020, but was talked out of it at that time.
The D.C. deployment follows a pattern of Trump increasingly pulling the military into his political agenda while claiming to be combating lawlessness. Earlier this year, Trump deployed thousands of Guardsmen and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests against immigration raids, a move that sparked a lawsuit by state officials arguing he usurped their authority over the Guard.
Local D.C. officials have pushed back on Trump's characterization of the city as crime ridden and sued over the attempt to take over the police force, but have walked a finer line on the deployment of the Guard, which Trump has the power to do unilaterally in D.C. since the district is not a state.
At a news conference Monday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser deflected a question about reports that the administration was considering arming Guardsmen, but she has stressed that Guardsmen should not be used for law enforcement.
"They have to be used on mission-specific items that benefit the nation," she said at a Wednesday news conference. "I don't think you have armed militia in the nation's capital."
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