Republican governors from throughout the nation are speeding to deploy their Nationwide Guard troops to Washington, heeding the autocratic name from President Donald Trump to flood the capital with forces.
On Tuesday, The New York Occasions reported that Gov. Invoice Lee of Tennessee will ship roughly 160 Nationwide Guard troops to Washington by the top of the week.
Different Republican governors have already adopted swimsuit.
Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi echoed Trump’s false portrayal of town as lawless, saying Monday he would ship about 200 troops as a result of “Americans deserve a safe capital city that we can all be proud of.”
Louisiana’s Nationwide Guard, in the meantime, introduced it could ship 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 additionally deployed troops, a part of Trump’s broader push that has included tons of of federal brokers and a dictatorial takeover of the D.C. police pressure.
District of Columbia Nationwide Guard troopers patrol on the Nationwide Mall on Aug. 14.
Collectively, the six states are sending over 1,100 troops to Washington, the place 800 D.C. Nationwide Guard members are already stationed after Trump known as them up. Governors often management their state items, however Trump illegally bypassed that authority when he despatched troops to Los Angeles this summer time, a transfer nonetheless below federal litigation.
All of this comes as violent crime in Washington has fallen sharply, reaching a 30-year low in 2024. Nonetheless, Trump claims, with out proof, that town is hiding its descent into chaos.
“D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers to create a false illusion of safety,” he wrote Monday on Reality Social, providing no proof for his allegation.
Native officers, nonetheless, say the Trump administration has made crime prevention tougher via finances cuts and inaction.
On Tuesday, The Washington Submit reported that Trump’s Justice Division had opened an investigation into Trump’s claims that the D.C. police falsified knowledge to make crime charges seem decrease. The inquiry escalates tensions between federal and native authorities, including to the broader feud that has adopted the federal takeover of town’s police division.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and native officers spotlight a 27% lower in violent crime over the previous yr, with homicides down 11%. However federal officers insist, with out proof, that town is unsafe and that the federal takeover is critical.
As Republican governors waste state sources to help Trump’s mission, Democrats are pushing again. In a Tuesday assertion, Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, chair of the Democratic Governors Affiliation, urged Republican leaders to “reject the temptation to use their soldiers to reinforce a dangerous, politically motivated agenda.”
She added that deploying Nationwide Guard members with out native 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 stays unclear the place the incoming troops can be stationed, what their duties will entail, or who can be directing them. Many residents within the closely Democratic metropolis are livid over the extra forces—not what you’d count on from a metropolis supposedly besieged by crime.
For now, Washington faces a surge of army presence inspired by Trump and his GOP allies to push an unfounded crime narrative.
