WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s been a year since President Donald Trump sent the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and residents, politicians and experts are divided over the mission’s success.
In August 2025, thousands of troops were sent to D.C. as part of the Safer and Beautiful Task Force after President Trump declared a crime emergency in the city.
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The arrival of the soldiers immediately sparked opposition from many DC residents, and protests were held throughout the year. The advocacy group Free DC organized 11 days of demonstrations that culminated in a protest in front of the White House on Tuesday against what the group called a “hostile military occupation.”
“I think President Trump should take the plunge and send them home,” Yvon Coles, 60, a restaurant worker who was born and raised in the nation’s capital, said on a hot August day in Farragut Square as several soldiers patrolled the area.
“They’re not just walking around,” Coles said. “That money could go to organizations that help people who really need help.”
The deployment has also faced resistance from legal officials who question its constitutionality.
On September 4, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the Trump administration over the deployment, arguing in the lawsuit that it was an unlawful use of force for law enforcement purposes in violation of the Police Act.
U.S. District Judge Gia Cobb ruled on Nov. 20 to halt the deployment, but a federal appeals court granted the administration’s request to put the order on hold as the lawsuit continues.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser similarly criticized the legality of the deployment, blaming the Trump administration for the spike in crime rates.
“We use the Guard to respond to emergencies. We use the Guard for large events. We don’t use the Guard to enforce local laws,” Bowser said at the D.C. conference in October.
As the first anniversary of the deployment approaches, federal officials announced a “summer surge” of the National Guard and requested 1,500 additional troops ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations in the nation’s capital.
“Peaceful and calm”
Not everyone opposes the presence of the National Guard.
Aaron Taslitz, a 30-year-old teacher who also works as a bicycle courier in Washington, D.C., said he would like military resources to be used for more urgent matters rather than roaming the streets of the nation’s capital, but he feels safer with military resources nearby.
“For the most part, they keep things peaceful and quiet here,” he said, taking a break from his morning bike ride at Dupont Circle.
President Trump has frequently criticized Washington, D.C., calling it “one of the most unsafe cities in the world” and claiming that crime has fallen by 88 percent since the Guard was introduced.
However, the exact impact of the National Guard presence on crime in Washington, D.C., remains unclear.
A report released by the Niskanen Center in May found that the deployment had no significant impact on violent crime in the area, which has been on the decline for the past several years.
The report found a marked decline in property crime, but showed that the military presence had a limited impact on “opportunistic” crime.
“These are not trained police officers,” explained report co-author Richard Hearn. “The best thing the National Guard can do from a crime deterrent standpoint is lookout.”
Troop patrol zones are also concentrated in “high traffic” areas, including tourist hubs like the National Mall and Union Station.
“Violent crime is concentrated in certain areas of Washington, D.C.,” Hahn said. “And those are generally places where security guards are not deployed.”
There are currently 4,636 soldiers deployed on D.C. missions, including about 700 members of the D.C. National Guard and thousands of other various National Guard members, according to a Joint Task Force and D.C. spokesperson. The states with the most out-of-state contributions are Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi.
Despite the large number of troops, local news stations in Washington, D.C., report a lack of visibility of troops east of the Anacostia River, where some neighborhoods have some of the highest violent crime rates in the city.
Commander Leland D. Blanchard II indicated at an Aug. 3 press conference that the patrol area would change in the coming weeks, but did not provide further details.
“Unnecessary” use of force
A Senate inquiry written in February by Sens. Gary Peters and Andy Kim also expressed concerns that the deployment risks undermining local trust in law enforcement, politicizing the military and reducing military preparedness.
The report also identified threats to civilian privacy posed by the Guard’s software tools, including social media surveillance systems Meltwater and Cision, and the Maven Smart System, a platform from Palantir Technologies.
The National Guard has also faced multiple lawsuits since its deployment began last August.
On July 29, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint on behalf of retired U.S. Army Capt. Anna King, who was violently detained by the Idaho National Guard in May on suspicion of assaulting an officer two days earlier.
King denies the charges and believes he was detained because he was a vocal critic of the Guard’s presence in the city.
“What we see here is a completely unnecessary and completely disproportionate use of aggressive force,” said Michael Perloff, an attorney representing King.
Official costs for the first year of the operation were not reported, but the Senate Homeland Security Committee reported an estimated $602 million annually.
In July, the Pentagon announced plans to keep Guard troops in Washington, D.C., until the end of President Trump’s term. The deployment would cost an additional $1.4 billion between October 2026 and January 2029, according to estimates obtained by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
This figure comes on top of already high implementation costs.
An Indiana National Guard soldier who was deployed for several months in November as part of his mission to Washington, D.C., and who requested anonymity, described his time patrolling the streets of the city with mixed feelings.
“The time I spent there was to help the citizens of Washington, D.C.,” the soldier said, adding that he was proud to provide this service.
“It didn’t matter who they were or what they were doing. I was just there to help in any way I could,” he said. “I’ve seen people being positively impacted by our influence.”
However, he said there were times when he doubted the mission, pointing to particularly low morale among troops who were away from their families during the holidays.
“There were days when I was like, ‘What am I doing here? I’m really not doing anything.'”
