President Trump’s decision to send at least 800 National Guard troops into the streets of Washington to fight crime is the latest example of how the president has used the military to advance domestic policy priorities.
Though crime rates in the capital have been falling, Mr. Trump has said that they are “totally out of control” and has threatened a federal takeover.
Already this year, Mr. Trump has deployed some 10,000 active-duty troops to the southwest U.S. border to choke off the flow of drugs as well as migrants, and 4,700 National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles to help quell protests that had erupted over immigration raids and to protect the federal agents conducting them. All but about 250 of those National Guard troops have since been withdrawn.
Mr. Trump last month secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations.
The National Guard troops who will fan out across Washington starting this week will not perform law enforcement tasks, Pentagon officials said on Monday. Instead, 100 to 200 Guard soldiers at any given time will help with such tasks as logistics and transportation, while providing a “physical presence” in support of federal agents, the Army said in a statement.
But like the Guard in Los Angeles, the soldiers in Washington will probably be able to detain people temporarily in certain circumstances until federal agents arrive, officials said. The soldiers will be armed and authorized to defend themselves, military officials said.
“You will see them flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming week,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former National Guard infantryman, said at a White House news conference on Monday morning, standing next to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Hegseth offered no details on how long the National Guard would be deployed in the capital. But he said they “will be strong, they will be tough and they will stand with their law enforcement partners.”
The Pentagon is contacting National Guards in other states, including “specialized units,” in case reinforcements are needed, Mr. Hegseth said. But a senior Army official said the 800 D.C. Guard soldiers tapped for duty should be sufficient.
In a Truth Social post on Monday morning, Mr. Trump said, “I will, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN!”
Unlike a state’s governor, the District of Columbia does not have control over its National Guard, giving the president broad leeway to deploy those troops. The D.C. Guard’s chain of command runs from its commanding general to the secretary of the Army to Mr. Hegseth to the president.
The U.S. military responds quickly to executive directives. For that reason, it is a preferred institution for a president who presents himself as tough on crime, undocumented immigrants, drugs, “woke” culture and other perceived domestic enemies.
But in recent months that has put the military at the center of a series of partisan political issues, traditionally where its leaders in the past have least wanted to be.
Mr. Trump’s directive deploying National Guard troops to Washington “is a fraught one because it will seem partisan from the get-go,” said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University.
“The military does not train for normal police beat-walking missions,” Mr. Feaver said in an interview.
Military leaders are trying to keep the rules of engagement for the D.C. mission as narrow as possible, one Defense Department official said, so that soldiers with M-16s who have been trained to kill adversaries are not put in policing roles.
“This is part of a pattern where the administration is using and appropriating military resources for nonmilitary domestic goals,” said Carrie A. Lee, the former chair of the department of national security and strategy at the Army War College. “Whether it’s immigration or going against drug cartels or crime in Washington, it’s very clear, to me at least, that this administration sees the military as a one-size-fits-all solution to its accomplishing its domestic political priorities.”
Critics in Congress also assailed the new directive. “Our military is trained to defend the nation from external threats and assist communities during disasters or emergencies, not to conduct day-to-day domestic policing,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “This deployment is a serious misuse of the National Guard’s time and talent.”
During Mr. Trump’s first term, Pentagon and military leaders cautioned him against using troops to shoot racial justice protesters in the legs, as former aides have said he suggested. He heeded their warnings, though some National Guard soldiers used aggressive tactics against protesters.
But in Mr. Hegseth, Mr. Trump now has a defense secretary who has enthusiastically supported the president’s desire to use military force inside the country.
For the troops, and for the military in general, there could be risks in calling on them for matters traditionally handled by other institutions. In some cases, troops could feel pitted against their own neighbors.
“They’re members of the community, which is why these types of missions are very unpopular with those serving,” said Dr. Lee, who is now a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “You’re being asked to threaten force against the people whose kids may go to school with yours.”
In interviews with The New York Times, members of the California National Guard said the deployment to Los Angeles had eroded the morale of a force that, during the January wildfires, had been welcomed by many in the city. Guard officials also expressed concerns that the deployment would hurt re-enlistment.
For the military as a whole, the cost could come in recruiting and retention, military experts say, as few join the military to police the Washington metro area.
Mr. Trump’s order came two days after the retirement of Maj. Gen. John C. Andonie, the commanding general of the D.C. Guard. Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard II was named acting commander.
“The role of the National Guard is more relevant now than ever,” said General Andonie, who is stepping down after 35 years of service. “Modern citizen-soldiers and airmen must be agile and flexible, as demonstrated by our Guard members responding to missions both at home and abroad.”
The D.C. Guard has more than 2,400 members, “with a longstanding commitment to national defense and community,” the Guard said in a statement about the change of command.
Carol Rosenberg contributed reporting.