At 6:06 p.m. on Sunday, dozens of residents of Southwest Washington took to their balconies and windows to bang pots and pans in daily protest of the National Guard patrolling their streets. For them, the specter of armed troops in their city does not go down easy.
The reality so far: Earlier that day, National Guard troops broke up a fight near a Metro stop by yelling at two men. A couple weeks before that, a National Guardsman driving a transport vehicle in Capitol Hill was ticketed after running a red light.
Just over 2,300 National Guard troops are deployed in the nation’s capital, a month after President Trump took federal control of the city’s police and mobilized the troops in a supposed crackdown on crime. The 30-day window granting him those powers ended at midnight on Wednesday, but it remains unclear how much will immediately change on the ground.
Violent crime has been steadily falling in Washington since 2023, despite Mr. Trump’s warnings of “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor” in the city.
And then there is what the Pentagon has named Task Force Beautification. Guard troops have been “deployed” (a loosely used term) to highly trafficked tourist spots to replant grass, wash off graffiti and pick up trash (of which, this being Washington, there is a lot).
“Today, soldiers and airmen assigned to Task Force Beautification completed beautification projects at or around Washington, D.C.’s Tidal Basin, Haynes Point and Watergate areas,” one of the D.C. Guard’s nightly news releases said on Aug. 26, misspelling Hains Point, a park along the Potomac River.
The deployment of the National Guard has generated weeks of headlines, political smack talk and hand-wringing over whether the president is declaring war on some of the country’s own cities.
The White House has lauded the number of arrests in Washington since Mr. Trump declared the crime emergency, even though many of them have been for minor offenses. Helpfully feeding the discourse, the administration has dribbled out a steady stream of details: To help the initial 800 National Guard troops fighting crime in Washington, reinforcements would deploy from several Republican-led states. Guard members “may be armed, consistent with their mission and training,” according to an announcement from the Pentagon.
Mr. Trump, declaring the crackdown a success, has said he plans similar escalations elsewhere. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” he wrote on social media on Sunday, referring to the newly rebranded Pentagon.
So far, department officials say they expect to spend about $75 million on the Guard deployment to Washington in the first six weeks. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has continued to stress “lethality” and a “warrior ethos” as the main focus for the U.S. military.
The contradiction between the administration’s tough talk and how it has deployed troops prompted a headline from Duffel Blog, a military satire site: “Hegseth announces Pentagon will stop fighting wars, focus on lethality.”
The National Guard declined requests for reporters to embed with its units and said it would not announce in advance the activities and locations of troops in Washington, citing security concerns. But it has sent nightly news releases describing what they have been up to:
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On Monday, some highlights on trash pickup and mulching: “To date, Guardsmen have cleared 906 bags of trash, spread 744 cubic yards of mulch, removed five truckloads of plant waste, cleared 3.2 miles of roadway and painted 270 feet of fencing.”
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On Sunday, after the fight that service members broke up near the Metro stop: “One male fled, and the other who was the perceived victim of the violence stayed to file a report with M.P.D.,” a release said, referring to the Metropolitan Police Department. “Servicemembers assisted him to settle down on a bench, then called M.P.D.”
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On Aug. 29, a cautionary tale about what happens when armed troops are present in cities. Mississippi Guard troops responded to a fight on a Metro train: “While trying to de-escalate the situation, one of the males reached for the service weapon of a responding soldier. The soldier assisted him to the ground, where he was placed in hand restraints until Metro Transit Police arrived.”
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On Aug. 28, an update on crime numbers, despite the fact that the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether city officials had falsified data to begin with: “Reported criminal activity in the District of Columbia was down in several key aspects, including 60 percent reduction in carjackings, 56 percent drop in robberies and a 58 percent decrease in violent crimes, when compared the same week period in 2024, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.”
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On Aug. 23, the Guard reported helping an older adult: “Servicemembers came across an elderly man who fell off his bicycle near the Korean War Memorial,” the nightly release said. A West Virginia Guard medic “used his individual first aid kit to treat abrasions on the man’s leg and also cleaned and bandaged the wound. The man was able to leave the area on his bicycle without any additional emergency services support.”
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On Aug. 21, troops helped find a missing child. “The child was safely reunited with their parents without incident.”
Shawn Hubler contributed reporting.
Helene Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent for The Times. She was previously an editor, diplomatic correspondent and White House correspondent.
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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