WASHINGTON — National Guard troops deployed to Washington this month to support President Donald Trump’s effort to mitigate crime began carrying firearms Sunday evening, according to the federal task force managing the operation.
The majority of the guard members will carry M17 pistols, their service-issued weapons, a Defense Department official with knowledge of the planning, while a small number of the troops will be armed with their service M4 rifles. The troops are authorized to use their weapons for self-protection and “as a last resort” in response to an “imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm,” the federal task force said.
A spokesperson for the task force said National Guard members supporting safety and security will be armed, whereas troops who are assigned to “beautification” tasks across the district, which includes tasks like community restoration, most likely will not be.
Several armed National Guard troops were seen Sunday evening patrolling the Chinatown neighborhood of D.C., wearing patches labeled “MP” to signify their role as military police.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday ordered the authorization of roughly 2,000 National Guard troops in D.C. to begin carrying weapons. It marked a shift in the posture of the guard members, who had been unarmed as they worked to support law enforcement by assisting with community safety patrols, traffic control points and crowd flow support.
The federal task force said it is “currently staffing” a request by local police for “increased Guardsmen presence at pre-specified metro locations” to coincide with the start of school year for many D.C. area schools.
In carrying out Hegseth’s directive, the Army said that “Guard members receive initial, regular, ongoing and refresher training” and “complete annual weapons qualifications, prior to carrying weapons.”
A White House official told NBC News that despite being armed, as of Saturday night, the National Guard troops in D.C. are not making arrests and will continue to focus their work on protecting federal assets and providing a safe environment for law enforcement officers making arrests.
More than 2,200 National Guard soldiers and airmen, a majority from out of state, have been deployed to D.C. to support what Trump has framed as a concerted effort to tackle crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital. At the time of the initial troop deployment this month, violent crime had dropped roughly 27% year over year, according to D.C. police data. Currently guard members from D.C., West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee are assisting the District and federal government agencies.
Nearly 60% of guard members in D.C. are from out of the district after several Republican state leaders sent hundreds of troops there. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey deployed more than 400 troops to D.C. “as a show of commitment” to Trump’s initiative, the most of any state leader.
Democrats have bashed the deployment as partisan in nature, accusing Trump of trying to exert his presidential authority through scare tactics and noting that his primary targets have been cities with Black leadership.
Trump threatened Sunday to send the military into Baltimore after he sparred with Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, deriding the city as “crime-ridden.”
“But if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” Trump said on Truth Social, using a derogatory nickname to refer to Gavin Newsom, the governor of California.
Deploying the National Guard to cities like D.C. is historically uncommon, as the force is typically used to respond to situations like natural disasters and civil unrest.