The U.S. military is preparing to activate National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., as part of President Trump’s crackdown on street crime in the city, a Defense Department official said on Monday.
Mr. Trump had not approved any official deployment orders as of early Monday. But he is expected to announce at a news conference at the White House that up to several hundred District of Columbia National Guardsmen will be sent to support law enforcement officers in the capital, the Defense Department official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. No other details were available early Monday.
The troops, whose possible activation was previously reported by Reuters, would probably not have arrest authorities. Instead, they would support law enforcement officials or free them up to carry out patrol duties, the Defense Department official said.
The Trump administration also plans to temporarily reassign 120 F.B.I. agents in Washington to nighttime patrol duties as part of Mr. Trump’s crackdown, according to people familiar with the matter. Most of the agents will be pulled from their regular duties at the F.B.I.’s Washington field office, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe details of an effort that were not meant to be public.
The troop activation in Washington comes after the deployment this summer of nearly 5,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles with orders to help quell protests that had erupted over immigration raids and to protect the federal agents conducting them. All but about 250 of those National Guard troops have since been withdrawn.
In his first term, Mr. Trump called up National Guard soldiers and federal law enforcement personnel to forcibly clear peaceful protests during the Black Lives Matter protests after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Unlike a state’s governor, the District of Columbia does not have control over its National Guard, giving the president broad leeway to deploy those troops.
Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
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