National Guard members are now carrying firearms in Washington, D.C., raising concerns from civil rights groups and residents in the nation’s capital that armed troops could escalate growing tensions as Donald Trump’s federal takeover enters a third week.
As of Sunday evening, the troops will now be armed with handguns or rifles, just two days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the nearly 2,000 troops stationed in Washington to start carrying firearms, a Defense Department official told the Associated Press.
The troops are authorized to use their firearms for self-protection, the outlet reported.
The Independent has requested additional information from the Pentagon.
Trump initially deployed about 800 National Guard troops on August 11 after he declared a “crime emergency,” despite reports of violent crime hitting a 30-year low. Six GOP-led states have since sent their National Guard troops to support the president’s efforts, adding more military presence in the nation’s capital.
Civil rights and advocacy groups have condemned the Trump administration’s decision to arm troops, warning that it could inflame already-high tensions between locals and the federal government.
“The president relied on a phony emergency as an excuse to overstep his power, and now we have a real emergency — the threat of an unnecessary and disorienting flood of armed military forces on D.C. streets,” according to Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia.
“Let’s be clear: military troops have no place policing civilians in the United States,” she added. “Now, the people of D.C. face a dangerous escalation with armed National Guard troops patrolling our streets.”
Kris Brown, president of gun violence prevention group Brady, said arming National Guard members will contradict Trump’s mission to reduce crime in the city.
“It doesn’t take an expert to realize that more weapons on our streets won’t decrease crime. If more guns meant less crime, then America would be the safest nation on Earth,” Brown said in a statement. “But the Trump administration is dangerously escalating its takeover of our nation’s capital by subverting D.C.’s gun laws and militarizing our streets.”
Common Defense, an organization of progressive veterans, called the decision to arm troops “reckless.”
“Soldiers aren’t trained for police work — this only puts our communities at greater risk,” the group said in a statement.
The president is reportedly weighing a radical expansion of the military’s footprint in American cities with plans to mobilize up to 1,700 National Guard troops across 19 states in the coming weeks to support his immigration and crime crackdowns.
In a Truth Social post Sunday, the president suggested troops could soon be sent to Baltimore.
He has also signaled that he has his eye on Chicago to execute a similar plan, and the Pentagon has reportedly prepared for several weeks to begin an operation in the nation’s third-largest city.
“After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also,” Trump said in the Oval Office last week. “That will be our next one after this.”
