Trump extends National Guard deployment in Washington into 2029
President Trump is extending the National Guard’s presence in Washington until January 2029 — the longest such deployment in U.S. history — even as a new study finds it has done little to curb the crime it was sent to fight.
The deployment, which a Defense Department official confirmed will now run until Inauguration Day in 2029, began nearly a year ago with Trump’s emergency order to crack down on crime in the capital. In recent weeks, the president doubled the troop presence to more than 5,000 to support events tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary, making the mission the most expensive Guard mobilization the country has seen.
Yet a study by the nonpartisan Niskanen Center found the deployment has had only a marginal effect on crime. The Guard’s presence cut opportunistic offenses such as auto theft and larceny by 24 percent but had no measurable effect on violent crime such as robbery and homicide. The effects “were concentrated in opportunistic property offenses in public spaces,” the study concluded — largely because troops were posted in tourist corridors and around federal buildings rather than in the city’s high-crime neighborhoods.
The mission also comes at a premium. At $607 per soldier per day — the highest cost of any deployment to a major American city — the operation has cost $330 million so far and is projected to top $600 million by August, more than the Metropolitan Police Department’s entire $599 million annual budget. A District police officer, by comparison, costs roughly $384 a day.
Guard members have patrolled the streets, enforced juvenile curfews meant to prevent “teen takeovers” of neighborhoods, protected federal property and detained people until local police arrive to make arrests. Under federal control, the Guard is generally barred from directly participating in domestic law enforcement.
The initial Guard presence drew on troops from Republican-led states including Florida, Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina. But this summer’s surge was bolstered in part by contingents from several states with Democratic governors, including Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina and Minnesota, reigniting debate over the politicization of the military. Those governors sent troops to support 250th events, and many reversed course after reports that the troops had been redirected to join the federal task force managing the broader anti-crime mission.
Earlier this month, 19 former military and senior defense officials who served under presidents from both parties sent a letter to Democratic governors who chose not to send troops to DC praising their choice.
“Over the past 250 years, a non-partisan military has been a bedrock of American democracy,” the letter read. “Your abstention from the D.C. deployment is an honorable tribute to those who founded our nation and the men and women in uniform who have fought to defend it ever since.”
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Priya Sridhar is the Pentagon correspondent for MS NOW.
Lily Becker is a producer on “The Weeknight” for MS NOW.
