National Guard Deployed in Washington, DC (and the Left is Lashing Out)

As promised Monday, National Guard troops began deploying in Washington, DC yesterday.

National Guard troops were seen leaving the D.C. Armory on Tuesday morning. Video footage captured military vehicles stationed on a street as pedestrians walked by. It wasn’t immediately clear how many troops were in the city or what role they would play…

The presence of troops and federal law enforcement came amid the Trump administration’s plan to combat crime in the city. 

Some images of the National Guard showing up downtown.

D.C. National Guard reporting for duty

The #USArmy has activated the D.C. National Guard as directed by the President under Title 32 to assist Federal and Washington D.C. law enforcement within the national capitol.

U.S. Army photos by Staff Sgt. Deonte Rowell, August 12,… pic.twitter.com/4cRWw572kl

— U.S. Army (@USArmy) August 12, 2025

But over at left-wing site Public Notice, they have a post up titled “Trump’s brownshirts deploy in DC.”

In theory, the legislative branch should act as a check on a lawless president. But given that the GOP majorities in both the House and Senate have willfully abdicated their responsibility to do so, there’s no reason to think lawmakers won’t let Trump’s brownshirts occupy DC as long as he wants.

There are no real impediments to the president calling up the DC National Guard. Unlike state National Guards, which are under the control of state governors, DC’s Guard is commanded by the president. Further, the position of the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel is that the DC National Guard can be used for federal work without being federalized, unlike state National Guards. This means it can be used for law enforcement purposes without running afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, which otherwise prohibits the use of federal troops for civilian enforcement efforts.

So, the DC Home Rule Act, combined with the structure of its National Guard, gives the president a perfectly legal and relatively friction-free way to make local police do his bidding and to have the National Guard roam the streets.

In short, what he’s doing is completely legal. From there the author suggests similar deployments will happen in other cities and that those may be mostly legal too. It all winds itself up to this apparent typo in the final paragraph. [emphasis added]

Unfortunately, the fact that his actions are blatantly legal isn’t nearly enough to stop Trump these days.

I think the author meant to say blatantly illegal but botched it. And I can understand why because most of what she’s written here supports the idea that what Trump has done thus far is in fact blatantly legal. But she reaches the desired left-wing conclusion anyway.

He’s smashing checks and balances, rubbing it in our faces, and pushing the country rapidly toward dictatorship.

This NY Times reporter was there and didn’t see a lot of jackbooted thuggery or dictatorship taking place. Just some selfies.

I’m below the Washington Monument, where about a dozen National Guard troops have just arrived, apparently as part of Trump’s initiative to deploy them to DC.

So far, they’ve: taken pictures of themselves, told reporters to step back, and taken pics with tourists from Spain. pic.twitter.com/jccfpJ4TNk

— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) August 12, 2025

So what are the guard troops doing besides taking selfies? It looks like they are going to provide a presence near the mall. Basically they are being used as a visual deterrent at some of our national monuments.

Col. Dave Butler, an Army spokesperson, said the troops were called on to help local law enforcement with logistics support, transportation and administration duties, as well as being visible around the National Mall.

“That’s part of our assignment – to go to the national monuments and be present,” he told ABC News…

Appearing on Fox News on Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the activated Guard troops will have “broad latitude” under existing authorities, but “they’re not going to be involved in law enforcement functions.”

Elsewhere, there were some arrests made by law enforcement yesterday as FBI Director Kash Patel pointed out.

On the first big push of FBI supporting @POTUS @realDonaldTrump initiative to make DC safe again, FBI reported 10 arrests with partners. These include:

-One arrest on a search warrant for a prior murder charge
-Multiple unlawful possession of firearms
-Multiple outstanding…

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 12, 2025

-One arrest on a search warrant for a prior murder charge

-Multiple unlawful possession of firearms

-Multiple outstanding warrants for DUI

-One arrest for violation of restraining order

These are just a few examples — we are just getting started. Federal partners joined local police and arrested 23 in total. When you let good cops be cops they can clean up our streets and do it fast.

So there you have it. All of this is legal and none of it is dictatorship, even though they really want it to be one. 

As I suggested the other day, the left really needs for this effort to fail. They can’t have Trump’s effort succeed in a deep blue city, especially the nation’s capital. They have got to convince people it’s a failure because if it’s a success that looks very bad for their party and probably for the leadership of other blue cities.