The Trump administration has extended the deployment of about 2,500 National Guard troops in D.C. through the end of this year, having touted their presence in the city over the objection of local officials and an ongoing legal challenge, two defense officials familiar with the plan said Friday.
The mission is expected to continue including armed patrols in support of law enforcement plus a variety of sanitation and beautification projects, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the move has not yet been announced.
The National Guard headquarters overseeing the mission, Joint Task Force-DC, said that 2,673 troops were assigned to the mission as of Friday morning, including 714 members of the D.C. National Guard and 1,959 sent from 11 states led by Republican governors who support the mission.
The task force referred questions about the mission’s length to the White House, but said in a statement that the D.C. National Guard “remains committed to supporting the D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission and working alongside community partners to keep our city safe and welcoming.”
Spokespeople at the White House and Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment. The development was reported earlier by CNN.
The mission, which began in August at the direction of President Donald Trump, had been due to expire by the end of February after an earlier extension ordered in October. Trump has said the deployment is necessary because city leaders, in his view, had not done enough to combat crime.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and other D.C. government officials have objected to the deployment, saying it’s unnecessary. The mission is funded by the Defense Department, though the Pentagon has not disclosed how much it costs. Outside assessments have said the expense to federal taxpayers could be more than $1 million per day.
The new orders follow a Nov. 26 shooting of two West Virginia Guard troops near the White House. Spec. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed, while Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded and is recovering from his injuries. Authorities have called the ambush a targeted attack and brought murder charges against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan man who came to the United States in 2021.
The deployment of National Guard troops in Washington has been contested in court, with U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb finding in November that the deployment was “unlawful” and ordering the Trump administration to halt it. Beckstrom and Wolfe were shot a few days later, and a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in December said that the deployment can continue while it is further considered by the court.
Trump has used or threatened to use military force domestically in numerous other cities this year, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. In the most significant of those actions, Trump seized control of the California National Guard in June over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic political rival, deploying approximately 4,000 Guard members to Los Angeles along with a battalion of about 700 active-duty infantry Marines after protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids turned violent in a few instances.
In late December, Trump said he would end his efforts to keep National Guard troops deployed in all three of those cities, following a 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court that found the administration had failed to identify a legal way in which the military could “execute the laws in Illinois.”
At issue in those jurisdictions was whether the deployments violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from carrying out civilian law enforcement actions. Local officials also objected to Trump taking control of National Guard forces in each state, a move that rarely has occurred in U.S. history.
Trump has more authority in the District, which falls under federal control. National Guard members deployed in D.C. have been deputized to participate in law enforcement missions at the administration’s direction.
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