On August 20, 2025, the streets of Washington, D.C. took on a markedly different character as more than 2,000 National Guard troops—drawn from six Republican-led states—joined the D.C. Joint Task Force. This sudden surge in military presence is the result of President Donald Trump’s executive order to federalize law enforcement in the nation’s capital, a move he claims is necessary to address a so-called “crime emergency.” But as the boots hit the pavement, a chorus of local leaders, activists, and everyday residents have raised their voices in protest, calling the deployment a power grab at odds with the city’s reality and values.
According to the governor’s office in Tennessee, 160 members of the Tennessee National Guard were dispatched this week to support the federal effort, joining troops from Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Mississippi. “These service members will join the D.C. Joint Task Force and work alongside local and federal law enforcement agencies to assist with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities, and traffic control,” explained Elizabeth Johnson, spokesperson for Governor Bill Lee, in a statement reported by The Tennessean.
The legal justification for this deployment comes under Title 32, a federal statute that allows state National Guards to operate with federal funding and authority. This arrangement, while technically legal, is highly unusual. Historically, National Guard deployments have been reserved for moments of substantial civil unrest—think the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968 or the wave of protests following George Floyd’s death in 2020. What’s different now? The troops are being sent out of state to address what many see as local policing matters, including homelessness and general crime—issues that, according to local officials, do not warrant this level of intervention.
Indeed, the numbers tell a different story than the one coming from the White House. As Democracy Now! and The Washington Post have both reported, violent crime in D.C. is currently at a 30-year low. In January, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia even issued a press release titled “Violent Crime in D.C. Hits 30 Year Low.” Yet, President Trump and his administration have publicly disputed these statistics, prompting the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation into whether city officials manipulated crime data. That probe is being led by interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump appointee and former Fox News personality.
Local authorities have not minced words in their criticism of the federal incursion. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, speaking at a press conference on August 18, was blunt: “The numbers on the ground in the district don’t support a thousand people from other states coming to Washington, D.C. You know that. … This is not about something that is — fits into logic. So, if you want to know what’s happening, the question is really not for us, it’s for why the military would be deployed in an American city to police Americans. That’s the question.”
The people of D.C. seem to agree with their mayor. A recent poll by The Washington Post found that 80% of residents oppose Trump’s executive order to federalize the city’s law enforcement. Community activists, too, have been vocal. Samantha Davis, founder of the Black Swan Academy, told a crowd, “This is not about crime; this is about control. This is not about public safety; this is about power. Last week, Donald Trump suggested that our children in D.C., as young as 14, should be tried as adults. Let me ask you: Do we want that?” The crowd responded with a resounding “No!”
Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, went even further in an interview with Democracy Now!: “What we’re seeing here is something that would be considered an act of civil war if D.C. were a state, if we had equal representation under the law. There’s National Guard coming from one state to another state against the wishes of the elected officials and of the people who are here. So, this is clearly straight out of the playbook of any dictator. They want to take over the capital of the country in order to silence dissent.”
Reports from the ground indicate that the National Guard’s presence is having a profound impact on daily life. According to Chatterjee, “People are both, very rightly, you know, taking precautions, walking in pairs, letting people know when they’re leaving places, because sometimes we’re seeing, you know, people going to work and getting snatched up, put in chains. And because these — you know, these gangs of Trump’s federal agents are often unlabeled, they’re often wearing masks, we don’t know who’s taking them sometimes. Family members don’t know where their loved ones have been taken.”
Beyond the fear, there is also defiance. D.C. residents have organized nightly “cacerolazos”—the banging of pots and pans at 8 p.m., one for each of the city’s eight wards—as a show of unity and resistance. “We have both a sense of defiance, but — and a leaning into all the things that make D.C. so beautiful, right? Like leaning into our neighborhood culture, loving our neighbors, you know, listening to go-go music on the streets,” Chatterjee said.
The federal intervention has also come with financial consequences. Congress has withheld $1.1 billion in locally raised D.C. funds, despite the Senate voting to release the money. The House of Representatives, however, has failed to act, leaving the city unable to invest in public services that could further reduce crime—such as housing, education, and healthcare. “If they want D.C. to be safe, then they would allow us to fund housing, food, education, all of the things that we know reduce crime rates,” Chatterjee argued.
One group particularly vulnerable to the increased military presence is the city’s unhoused population. The Trump administration has targeted homeless encampments for dismantling, a move that advocates say amounts to “textbook authoritarianism.” Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center put it starkly: “Locking up people you don’t like or don’t want to see is textbook authoritarianism. Trump is testing opinion by focusing on groups that he believes to have little public sympathy, like folks who live outside.”
As the situation unfolds, D.C. residents and their allies across the country are being asked to stand in solidarity. The stakes, as many see them, extend far beyond the capital’s borders. “These are vulnerabilities that are not just vulnerabilities for the people of D.C., but these are vulnerabilities to the people of this country and our democracy, and therefore, vulnerabilities to the entire world,” Chatterjee warned.
For now, the city remains under federal oversight, its streets patrolled by out-of-state troops, and its residents caught in a struggle over the meaning of public safety, democracy, and self-determination. The outcome, many believe, will reverberate far beyond the city’s iconic monuments.
