National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., who are part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat crime, will now be armed starting Sunday night, according to two officials. The specific number of troops carrying weapons is not fixed, but they will be equipped with either M17 pistols or M4 rifles. These details were shared by officials who spoke anonymously due to not being authorized to disclose the information.
The presence of unarmed National Guard troops in Washington has been ongoing for the past two weeks following Trump’s declaration of a crime emergency in the district. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently gave the authorization for the troops to carry firearms. The Joint Task Force-DC of the Guard emphasized in a statement on Sunday that force would only be used as a last resort in response to an imminent threat of serious harm.
Several Republican governors responded to Trump’s request by sending hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. Trump has portrayed the city as being in the midst of a crime surge despite official data showing a decrease in crime rates. He attributed this purported decline to the deployment of troops and federal law enforcement personnel.
Meanwhile, Trump indicated his intention to potentially extend his crime-fighting measures to cities like Chicago and Baltimore, both governed by Democrats. However, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, a House minority leader, contested Trump’s authority to deploy troops to Chicago, highlighting a decline in crime rates in the city over the past year.
Plans for potential National Guard troop deployments to Chicago have been informally discussed at the Pentagon, although senior officials there have not been briefed on them yet. Trump’s move to deploy troops to various cities faces scrutiny and potential legal challenges, especially regarding the use of federal law provisions to justify military presence.