Trump’s National Guard Deployment in Washington, DC

About a year after President Donald Trump ordered a “military occupation” of Washington, DC, roughly 4,500 National Guard troops have been patrolling the city. Trump has repeatedly asserted that the soldiers are the only force capable of protecting the capital from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor.” The deployment, which can detain suspects but must call police to make arrests, is slated to continue until the end of Trump’s term in 2029.

Common Dreams

Violent crime has risen slightly since the Guard arrived, with the Metropolitan Police Department reporting 1,712 violent crimes in 2026 versus 1,645 at the same point in 2025—a 4 % increase. A Reuters investigation found Guard members were mentioned in only about 1.3 % of criminal cases filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and the investigation could locate no court record of soldiers conducting law-enforcement actions in neighborhoods where roughly 82 % of the city’s 859 murders over the past five years occurred. In several documented incidents, Guard troops either failed to intervene or left injured individuals unattended until police arrived.

Common Dreams

A report from the nonpartisan Niskanen Center estimates a deployed Guard member costs roughly $607 per day, versus about $384 for a Metropolitan Police Department officer. The Defense Department later projected the overall deployment cost at nearly $1.7 million per day after troop numbers doubled. By contrast, researcher Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project calculated that the deployment’s daily cost is nine to ten times higher than the expense of providing affordable housing for every homeless resident in DC.

Common Dreams

• “For what it costs to deploy the Guard in [the] US for just six days,” — Clinique Chapman — Clinique Chapman

Common Dreams