A Year of National Guard Deployment in D.C.
By • August 10, 2026 2 773
By Emma Ibrahim
Tuesday, Aug. 11, marks one year since President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. More than 5,000 troops and millions of dollars later, it seems as though the guards are here to stay.
“The line just keeps being moved, with the intention of people getting used to seeing armed guards on our streets. They’re hoping that we come to normalize it,” said Jill Santos, one of the co-chairs for Free DC in Ward 2.
Last August, Trump declared a crime emergency in the District, despite violent crime plunging to a 30-year low, ushering in a surge of law enforcement patrolling everywhere from Union Station and neighborhoods to the National Mall and parks. Though the guards are not legally authorized to make arrests, they can detain people.
Each day, the deployment costs taxpayers $3 million. With the extension of the National Guard presence into Inauguration Day in 2029, costs could amass to around $1.4 billion, according to a Defense Department estimate.
While the Trump administration celebrates a reduction in crime, two different studies by the Niskanen Center and the Center for American Progress found that the National Guard has had little to no effect on violent crime.
“If this was really about making D.C. safe and beautiful, instead of wasting this money on the guard, we could instead be funneling that money into resources for the city,” Santos said, directing attention to homeless shelters, food security and supporting the nearly 30,000 federal employees who were pushed out of their jobs.
D.C. is not the only city that has dealt with a wave of federal law enforcement agents. Among the others are Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon. But while other states successfully challenged the presence of the National Guard, D.C.’s status as a federal district complicates city officials’ calls for withdrawal.
District Council member and presumptive mayor Janeese Lewis George promised to end the cooperation between Metropolitan Police Department officers and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, who are part of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.
“Federal agents deployed against D.C. residents have killed two people, injuring and endangering countless others, and ICE has detained thousands of residents, separating families and destroying homes. The occupation has made D.C. less safe,” said Amanda Gomez, Lewis George’s campaign communications director.
Free DC organized 11 days of action and solidarity, honoring Julian Bailey and Nolberto Meza, two D.C. residents who were killed by federal agents, celebrating in Malcolm X Park with a Sunday drum circle and, on the morning of the one-year anniversary of the guard deployment, holding a rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza.
“It’s been reinvigorating to see the ways that neighbors have come together,” Santos said, encouraging residents to familiarize themselves with Know Your Rights resources. “This is a moment in time where it’s super important that we look out for each other.”
Would be amazing if you could get an in into the actual guards and see what they are actually DOING here… and what they think about this deployment
There are 5000 of them so it’s a wide variety. They are all making really great money and earning time towards VA loans G.I. bill benefits and military retirement. They are all also on what’s called TDY so they are also all earning a very good per diem. It’s absolutely a terrible return for the money spent and useless at that. It’s absolutely security theater.
Definitely know that their superiors are telling them that they are essential to our safety and that they are very important. In this information economy, most people believe either the first thing they heard or the last thing they heard.