Republican governors from across the nation are rushing to deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, heeding the autocratic call from President Donald Trump to flood the capital with forces.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee will send approximately 160 National Guard troops to Washington by the end of the week.
Other Republican governors have already followed suit.
Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi echoed Trump’s false portrayal of the city as lawless, saying Monday he would send about 200 troops because “Americans deserve a safe capital city that we can all be proud of.”
Louisiana’s National Guard, meanwhile, announced it would send 135 members to “protect federal buildings, national monuments, and other federal properties,” and Gov. Jeff Landry added on social media, “I am proud to support this mission to return safety and sanity to Washington.”
Governors in Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia have also deployed troops, part of Trump’s broader push that has included hundreds of federal agents and a dictatorial takeover of the D.C. police force.
District of Columbia National Guard soldiers patrol on the National Mall on Aug. 14.
Collectively, the six states are sending over 1,100 troops to Washington, where 800 D.C. National Guard members are already stationed after Trump called them up. Governors usually control their state units, but Trump illegally bypassed that authority when he sent troops to Los Angeles this summer, a move still under federal litigation.
All of this comes as violent crime in Washington has fallen sharply, reaching a 30-year low in 2024. Still, Trump claims, without evidence, that the city is hiding its descent into chaos.
“D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers to create a false illusion of safety,” he wrote Monday on Truth Social, offering no evidence for his allegation.
Local officials, however, say the Trump administration has made crime prevention harder through budget cuts and inaction.
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Trump’s Justice Department had opened an investigation into Trump’s claims that the D.C. police falsified data to make crime rates appear lower. The inquiry escalates tensions between federal and local authorities, adding to the broader feud that has followed the federal takeover of the city’s police department.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and local officials highlight a 27% decrease in violent crime over the past year, with homicides down 11%. But federal officials insist, without evidence, that the city is unsafe and that the federal takeover is necessary.
As Republican governors waste state resources to support Trump’s mission, Democrats are pushing back. In a Tuesday statement, Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, urged Republican leaders to “reject the temptation to use their soldiers to reinforce a dangerous, politically motivated agenda.”
She added that deploying National Guard members without local consent “undermines the mission of the National Guard, wastes resources needed for real emergencies, and, perhaps worst of all, adds to the divisiveness that already threatens our United States.”
It remains unclear where the incoming troops will be stationed, what their duties will entail, or who will be directing them. Many residents in the heavily Democratic city are furious over the additional forces—not what you’d expect from a city supposedly besieged by crime.
For now, Washington faces a surge of military presence encouraged by Trump and his GOP allies to push an unfounded crime narrative.
