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Thousands of National Guard personnel remain on patrol in the nation’s capital and President Donald Trump says there is no plan to have them leave D.C. any time soon.
“We’re going to keep them,” he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House this week.
The president said someone asked if there were fewer National Guard personnel in D.C. and he answered, “I hope not.”
During the meeting, he turned to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and said he wants the military men and women to remain on patrol in the District, telling him, “don’t lower the number if you don’t mind.”
Hegseth said there is a plan to surge their numbers this summer.
“They look great,” Trump said.
The administration has requested that an additional 1,500 Guard troops be deployed in D.C., ahead of the celebration of the country’s 250th birthday. That will bring the total number to 5,000 this summer.
The president first ordered National Guard members deployed in the District last summer, after he announced he was taking over the D.C. police department under a public safety emergency.
In addition to the D.C. National Guard, units have continually been sent to the District from states with Republican governors.
Some D.C. officials have questioned the need for Guard patrols and whether they actually deter crime.
Mayor Muriel Bowser has said she doesn’t think the Guard should be used to police local laws.
Guard members don’t make arrests and are often seen walking around areas of D.C. that are popular with tourists.
A report compiled earlier this year for Democratic U.S. senators estimated that the Guard deployment in D.C. costs more than $1.65 million a day.
More than two dozen states oppose National Guard DC deployment
A coalition of 26 states this week filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, arguing that it should uphold a lower court ruling that would block the deployment of the National Guard in D.C.
The Trump administration is appealing the lower court ruling.
The filing is supported by three governors and 23 attorneys general, including Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.
“President Trump unlawfully deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. for political theater, not for public safety,” Brown said in a statement. “Our office will continue defending the rule of law against unlawful efforts to use military power to police American communities.”
Brown is joined in the brief by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the offices of the governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
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