The military announced that some troops are now carrying firearms in the US capital after President Donald Trump claimed there is ‘no crime’ there.
“Starting the late evening of August 24, 2025, [Joint Task Force-DC] service members began carrying their service-issued weapon,” the Joint Task Force-DC announced.
The military clarified that the troops are only authorized to use force “as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.”
According to unnamed officials speaking to the Reuters news agency, the National Guard will be equipped with M17 pistols or M4 rifles.
This announcement came as Trump, without evidence, claimed on Sunday that there is “NO CRIME AND NO MURDER IN DC!” one week after deploying troops to the area.
In the same post on Truth Social, Trump suggested he might “send in the ‘troops’ to neighbouring Baltimore,” which he described as “out of control” and “crime-ridden.”
Responding to Maryland Governor Wes Moore’s invitation to visit Baltimore and walk its streets, Trump stated: “I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.'”
However, Baltimore’s police department reported a double-digit reduction in gun violence in July compared to the previous year. The city has seen 84 homicides so far this year, the fewest in over 50 years, according to Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott.
In Washington, DC, which has a population of just over 700,000 people, thousands of National Guard and federal law enforcement officers are currently patrolling the streets.
The National Guard is a reserve force of part-time soldiers, according to the US Army, and can be called upon to respond to domestic emergencies, overseas combat missions, and “counter-drug efforts.”
The presence of the National Guard and federal law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital has been met with both protests and fear and confusion among residents.
At Trump’s request, some Republican governors have sent hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, which the president has portrayed as being in the grip of a crime wave, despite official data showing that crime rates in the city have declined.
Since Washington, DC, is not a state, the president has the authority to take over policing in the capital for up to 30 days.
Many residents have long advocated for the district to become a state. However, Democrats did not pursue efforts to make it a state after passing a bill in favour of it through the then-Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in 2020.
Meanwhile, JB Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, on Sunday rejected Trump’s push to send National Guard troops into Chicago.
“Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicise Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he is causing working families,” Pritzker said in a statement.
