Boots on the Ground (Indefinitely)
The troops aren’t going home anytime soon.
National Guard soldiers will remain on the streets of Washington, D.C. until the end of the year. That is the bottom line from a new memo reviewed by AWN.
Signed by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll this Wednesday, the order extends the deployment well past its original deadline next month. The reason? Driscoll cited “conditions of the mission” and the need to support President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to “restore law and order.”
The Capital Exception
While the President faces legal walls in other states, Washington is different.
Because D.C. is a federal district and not a state, Trump has direct control over its National Guard. He doesn’t need a governor’s permission. This loophole has allowed him to keep about 2,600 troops in the city while his plans for other major metros fall apart.
Currently, the force includes roughly 700 local D.C. guardsmen. The rest come from 11 Republican-led states including Indiana, Florida, and Oklahoma.
Mission Creep: Crime Fighters or Gardeners?
The mission started as a crime-fighting crackdown. It has turned into something else entirely.
The mandate quickly broadened to include “city beautification.” In a recent update, the task force reported some surprising stats for a military operation. Troops have cleared 1,150 bags of trash, spread over 1,000 cubic yards of mulch, and even pruned 400 trees.
But the work comes with real danger.
Just before Thanksgiving, tragedy struck the mission. Two troops from West Virginia were shot while deployed in the capital. Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, just 20 years old, later died from her injuries.
The Retreat Elsewhere
Outside of D.C., the administration is losing ground.
Trump has temporarily dropped his push to deploy troops into Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland. Legal challenges have made those moves difficult.
He tried it in Los Angeles last June. About 4,000 troops and 700 Marines were sent in following immigration protests. However, that force was removed in December after a federal judge ordered control returned to California Governor Gavin Newsom. An appellate court backed that decision.
Even in Minnesota, where tensions are high, the President backed off his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act on Friday.
For now, the strategy seems clear. If he can’t put troops in blue states, he will dig them in where he has total control. The capital remains under guard.