U.S. National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington D.C. as part of what President Donald Trump said was his crackdown on crime began carrying weapons on Sunday night, two officials said.

Washington

National Guard troops patrolling Washington, D.C., have begun carrying M-17 pistols or M-4 rifles after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the change. This follows two weeks of unarmed patrols initiated after President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the capital. The Guard stated that force would only be used as a last resort and in response to imminent threats.

President Trump has credited the deployment for reducing crime, though official statistics indicate crime is down in the city. He has also suggested expanding similar measures to Chicago and Baltimore, despite both cities reporting declining crime rates. Democratic leaders and local officials have questioned the necessity and legality of deploying troops to these areas.

National Guard patrolling Washington DC begin carrying weapons

Some National Guard troops patrolling the streets in Washington, D.C., began carrying M-17 pistols or M-4 rifles on Sunday night, according to officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had authorized the troops to carry weapons last week. It follows two weeks of unarmed patrols since U.S. President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the U.S. Capitol. The Guard's Joint Task Force, D.C., said Sunday in a statement that personnel would use force only, quote, as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. Trump has depicted the Capitol as gripped by a crime wave, although official data shows crime is down in the city. On Sunday, Trump claimed with no evidence that there's now no crime in the city, crediting his troop and federal law enforcement deployment. He's also mentioned intervention in two other Democrat-run cities, that he'd probably expand his crime crackdown to Chicago and possibly deploy troops to Baltimore. U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said there'd been initial planning at the Pentagon about what a deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago would look like. One official said the plans were part of the military's efforts to anticipate any requests by Trump, and that senior Pentagon officials had not yet been briefed on them. However, both of those cities report declining crime, with Baltimore reporting a double-digit decline in homicides in July that the city's mayor claims is a 50-year low. Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, speaking on CNN on Sunday, said that Trump did not have the authority to deploy troops to Chicago, calling it a manufactured crisis. Jeffries cited Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who said there's no emergency warranting National Guard or other military deployment.

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Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

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Chicago

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Los Angeles

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Las Vegas

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Nashville

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Breakdown