National Guard Deployment to DC Extended
A million dollars a day.
CNN (“Exclusive: National Guard orders in DC extended through February 2026“):
National Guard troops deployed in Washington, DC, will remain mobilized in the city at least through February 2026, according to people familiar with the guard’s orders.
The troops’ orders had been expected to lapse at the end of November before Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth extended them, which has not been previously reported.
The DC mobilization is currently the subject of a legal fight between the Trump administration and DC’s attorney general, who has requested that a judge order the removal of the roughly 2,000 troops from DC’s streets.
As of Wednesday morning, there were 2,387 National Guard troops mobilized in DC, including from DC, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama. The pay for those guard members has also been in jeopardy as part of the ongoing government shutdown. The mission is costing roughly $1 million daily.
Trump said in August he was mobilizing the guard in DC to help fight crime. The troops are on Title 32 orders, meaning they are authorized to conduct law enforcement activities, as opposed to Title 10 orders which means they are federalized and therefore barred by law to engage in law enforcement activities.
But since they arrived in the city over two months ago, guard members have largely been tasked with “beautification” efforts around the city, including cleaning up parks, laying mulch and picking up trash.
This is, it’s fair to say, highly unorthodox. While Guard soldiers frequently get called up to support civil authorities for disaster response and, less frequently, riot control, the missions are typically short. And, while troops under Title 32 orders are outside the purview of the Posse Comitatus Act and are able to perform police functions, that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here.
These folks signed up to perform civil relief missions and, in exigent circumstances, deploy to war. They did not sign up to spend months away from their families “beautifying” DC. Let alone for no paycheck.
It’s autumn. I’m sure they’ll find plenty of leaves to rake.
It puts their real fulltime jobs in trouble despite there being laws protecting those jobs (you can delete positions to get around that issues). It keeps them away from their families for the holidays.
Trump enjoys degrading and humiliating soldiers.
Not one sighting of National Guard in Southeast DC. If they are there to deter crime, they doing it wrong. I know, its all performative, but come on. Send these folks home to be with their families. Imagine missing Halloween with your kids back home because you were ordered to stand around or do chores all at the whim of a leader who could care less. I guess raking and mulching is part of warrior ethos training now. “Is that your leaf pile, Private!” “Sir, yes Sir!”
The only good news here is that instead of using US cities as military training grounds, they are being used as groundskeepers.
None of this is good, to be sure, but it is an illustration of the ongoing gap between Trump’s maximalist rhetoric and his actual policy execution.
Please note: I am not downplaying his nonsense, but noting that there is a disconnect between his threats and his execution.
Do Guard Members get special employee or deployment discounts on MAGA merch?
Any chance of the National Guard being literally assigned to “whack-a-mole”?
I can imagine the reaction of UK TAVR Yeomanry regiments being assigned to raking leaves in Hyde Park, lol.
Imminent revolt of the “Armoured Farmers”.
This is really quite silly, and an abuse of volunteers.
Keep this up long enough and a lot of people will likely chuck it in.
Maybe Miller and Hegseth plan to replace the current Guard with a National Proud Boy Militia?
@JohnSF:
I think that’s where a lot of the $75 billion ICE budget will go to.
There’s some speculation that the lower rates of right wing violence this year may indicate a lot fo the violent wingnuts are joining ICE, where they can indulge their bigoted cruelty without fear of any consequences.
One has to think these stunts will actively deter Americans from serving in the National Guard in future. Who wants to be dragged away from home and career for months to be a prop in a presidential PR campaign? Let alone run the risk of being ordered at some stage to get violent with fellow-Americans.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/national-guard-quick-reaction-force/