A convoy of soldiers assigned from the 273rd Military Police Company of the District of Columbia Army National Guard arrive at the National Mall to conduct patrol operations on Aug. 12, 2025. (Deonte Rowell/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — About half of the 800 National Guard troops ordered to help crack down on crime in the nation’s capital have arrived as logistics for the mission are still being figured out, an Army official said.
Guard troops on Tuesday night were near monuments on the National Mall and the U.S. Park Police facility in Anacostia, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Five Humvees lined the street at the corner of Jefferson Drive and 14th Street SW, between the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Holocaust Memorial Museum, according to news reports. Guard troops walked the sidewalks that form walking paths around the monuments. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and vehicles marked as Secret Service Police and Park Police were nearby.
“As we do more mission analysis, and the civilian law enforcement decides where to place them … you might see them employed in other places. It’s still too early to know,” the Army official said.
The official said it was likely that the rest of the Guard troops ordered to deploy within the city would arrive Wednesday. The majority of the 800 troops are local Guard members so they can travel home at the end of the day if they live within 50 miles of the nation’s capital.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, center, and Gen. James Mingus, service vice chief of staff, right, meet with a soldier assigned to the 273rd Military Police Company of the District of Columbia National Guard during patrol operations at the National Mall on Aug. 12, 2025. (Joseph Spraktes/U.S. Army)
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. James Mingus, the Army vice chief of staff, visited the D.C. Armory on Tuesday to greet troops and leaders as they prepared for the mission. Driscoll also visited troops on the National Mall later in the evening.
“I’m proud of the work these men and women are doing to make D.C. safer,” Driscoll said Wednesday in a post on X.
President Donald Trump on Monday ordered 800 Guard troops to help quell crime in the city and said the federal government would take control of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Under the city’s Home Rule Act, the president can take over the D.C. police for a period of up to 30 days by declaring “special conditions of an emergency nature exist.” After that time, the police would revert to local control unless Congress passes a law to allow a longer period of federal control.
Trump told reporters Wednesday at the Kennedy Center that he’s going to submit a “crime bill” to Congress and will ask lawmakers to approve an extension for his administration’s control of the D.C. police to address crime.
“We’re going to need a crime bill that we’re going to be putting in, and it’s going to pertain initially to D.C.,” he said. “We’re going to be asking for extensions on that, long-term extensions, because you can’t have 30 days.”
The Trump administration is also evaluating plans that would establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of hundreds of National Guard troops tasked with rapidly deploying into American cities facing protests or other unrest, The Washington Post reported.
The plan calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour, according to documents reviewed by the Post. They would be split into two groups of 300 and be stationed at military bases in Alabama and Arizona, with purview of regions east and west of the Mississippi River, respectively.
Army Brig. Gen. Leland Blanchard, the adjutant general of the District of Columbia Army National Guard, speaks with a DEA agent during patrol operations at the National Mall on Aug. 12, 2025. (Joseph Spraktes/U.S. Army)
The National Guard tested the concept ahead of the 2020 election, putting 600 troops on alert in Arizona and Alabama as the country braced for possible political violence.
The Army activated the D.C. National Guard on Monday under Title 32, the service said. Of the 800 Guard members activated, between 100-200 troops will be supporting law enforcement at any given time. Their duties will include an array of tasks from administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement, the Army said.
It is unclear how long the troops will be in Washington. During an appearance on Fox News on Monday night, Defense Secretary Hegseth was asked how long the Guard would be on the city’s streets.
“I don’t know, weeks, months. What will it take? That’s the president’s call, but we’re going to be there for him to execute as swiftly as possible,” he responded.
