According to a Reuters report, last summer, President Donald Trump dispatched thousands of National Guard troops to Washington as the centerpiece of his so-called “crackdown on crime” initiative — but these soldiers rarely actually fought crime.
The report notes that late one night this spring, three police officers drove to a nightclub where a man was stomping on a young woman who had fallen to the ground on the sidewalk.
Police reports show that the officers stopped the assault and arrested the man. However, Officer Xavier Jimenez, who filed the report, noted a telling detail: “There were approximately 15 National Guard members in the area conducting routine patrols, and they took no action.”
Since the troops arrived in August of last year, among criminal cases brought before the D.C. Superior Court, National Guard soldiers sent by Trump were mentioned in only about 1.3% of cases. And in dozens of those cases, the soldiers appeared not as the arresting party, but as crime victims themselves.
According to statistics, roughly 4,500 soldiers are currently deployed in Washington — more than the city’s police force of 3,200 officers. And they cost more than officers: the Trump administration told Congress last year that sending the National Guard to the capital costs about $1.65 million per day. This summer, officials doubled troop levels. By comparison, the city’s recent police budget runs about $1.5 million per day.
Additionally, the administration told Congress it plans to keep sending troops to Washington through the end of Trump’s presidential term in 2029, with total costs projected to reach $1.4 billion.
National Guard soldiers stand on alert. Image via Reuters.
After cross-referencing court records with city demographic and crime data, Reuters found that the soldiers mostly handled minor incidents in neighborhoods that are wealthier, whiter, and safer than the rest of the capital.
Court records show that over the past five years, the city experienced 859 homicides, roughly 82% of which were concentrated in specific neighborhoods. Yet there is no evidence in court records that soldiers ever performed any form of law enforcement there.
The White House did not respond to questions about the soldiers’ work. White House spokesperson Lauren Bice said Trump’s efforts in the city “reduced crime, beautified the city, and improved the quality of life for countless people.”
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has called the deployment “problematic,” but Bice declined to comment further, and the city’s police department also declined to comment.
The National Guard task force managing the Washington deployment did not respond to questions about its work or costs. Spokesperson Leona Hendrickson said the soldiers were too busy to be interviewed.
While soldiers sometimes broke up brawls or assaults, most of the offenses for which they detained people were minor. According to police records, in April they detained a man suspected of stealing two sticks of beef jerky worth about $7 from a pharmacy. Last month, six soldiers held a woman who drank a bottle of root beer without paying.
Evelyn Jones says the soldiers failed to save her nephew, Keon Jones. Keon was fatally stabbed in April near a bustling hotel and restaurant district downtown. After the altercation, soldiers found Keon unresponsive and called emergency services. They later told police they thought Keon was “just drunk.” It wasn’t until police arrived that they realized how badly injured he was — his intestines were protruding from his body. About two hours later, Keon died at the hospital.
“They could have done more for him,” Evelyn said of the incident.