National Guard troops in Washington, DC will carry weapons, Pentagon says

The order is a reversal for the Army, which had said on Aug. 14 that weapons would be available but ‘remain in the armory’ and that troops wouldn’t make arrests. (Bloomberg photo)

National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, will now carry weapons, the Pentagon said, signaling a more aggressive posture after President Donald Trump warned he’s “not playing games” with the federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement.

Joint Task Force members “will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons, consistent with their mission and training,” the Pentagon said.

The order is a reversal for the Army, which had said on Aug. 14 that weapons would be available but “remain in the armory” and that troops wouldn’t make arrests. About 2,000 National Guard soldiers have been sent to Washington in the week since Trump surged US officers and troops into the nation’s capital and put the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control.

Critics have called the deployment a public-relations exercise with officers deployed to relatively affluent or tourist-intensive areas and focused more on exerting control over a heavily Democratic city than with addressing crime.

On Thursday, Trump visited a Park Police operations facility to thank federal law enforcement officers and said the deployment would last “for a while.”

“We’re not playing games,” Trump said. “We’re going to make it safe.”

Trump on Friday said that he would seek $2 billion from Congress for beautifying and fighting crime in the capital as he looks to exert greater authority over Washington.

The federal takeover of the city remains deeply unpopular with DC residents, polling data show.

Protesters heckled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when he appeared alongside Vice President JD Vance and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller at a Union Station Shake Shack on Wednesday. Miller threatened to deploy “thousands more resources to this city to get the criminals and gang members out of here.”