Red States Rush to Send Troops for Trump’s D.C. Crackdown

Six Republican-led states are set to send hundreds of their own National Guard members to D.C. amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown in the city.

Troops from West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee will join the hundreds of Guard members Trump deployed to the nation’s capital last week. 

The president claimed the troops were needed to curb out-of-control crime in D.C. But police data indicates violent crime has been declining in the district since 2023.

The deployments from other states will nearly double the total number of Guard troops in D.C. in the coming days.

Guard troops from other states have been deployed to the district before in response to widespread civil unrest, including for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. However, the Trump administration deploying other state troops to the nation’s capital — a predominantly Democratic city — in times of peace is unprecedented. 

Experts have previously told Democracy Docket that Trump’s desire to use soldiers in civilian law enforcement undermines the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using active duty personnel to execute laws.

The six Republican governors of the states said they were making the deployments either at the request of the Trump administration or at the request of Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll. They also said the deployments are being funded by the federal government.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Saturday he was sending between 300 and 400 troops to D.C.

That same day, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he would send 200 soldiers. He deployed the troops during hurricane season, even though the South Carolina National Guard is routinely used in disaster relief. However, McMaster specified that they will be “subject to immediate recall of a hurricane or other natural disaster.” 

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office said he would send 150 troops.

Monday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he approved the deployment of approximately 200 soldiers, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he would send approximately 135 and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee sent 160.  

The over 1,200 troops from the states will join the 800 troops already on the streets of D.C. In total, over 2,000 troops will soon be in the district.

Chris Mirasola, a national security law professor at University of Houston Law Center, in a statement described the deployments as an expression of “unchecked” power.

“Yet more evidence why the executive branch’s theory of the protective power is so susceptible to abuse,” Mirasola said, referring to the sweeping legal theory the Trump administration has asserted while using the military in civilian law enforcement.

“There’s no evidentiary minimum that’s ever been asserted as legally required — just a swinging sword of Damocles hanging over any location with a federal presence,” Mirasola said.

In addition to Guard troops, Trump has sent hundreds of federal agents from several different agencies to D.C. 

While announcing the surge in police and soldiers last week, Trump said he would not stop with D.C.

“This will go further,” the president said, adding that New York, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland could be next.

The mission and authorities of the National Guard troops in D.C. have been unclear. Though the Army initially claimed last week that the troops would not carry firearms, a Guard spokesperson over the weekend told NPR that troops may soon be carrying weapons.

The troops have largely been stationed in heavily policed and low-crime parts of the city, such as around the White House, the National Mall and Union Station. 

Hundreds of people flooded D.C. streets over the weekend to protest the Guard’s presence in the district. 

Trump’s use of the Guard in D.C. could be affected by an upcoming court decision over his deployment of military troops in Los Angeles earlier this year.

A trial last week revealed close coordination between the military and law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles. Soldiers attended FBI briefings on upcoming arrests, set up traffic blockades and barriers for law enforcement operations and detained citizens on at least two occasions.

The Trump administration in total deployed around 5,000 National Guard soldiers and Marines to southern California, and the troops assisted with over 170 law enforcement operations carried out by several different federal agencies, according to the Pentagon.

This story has been updated with additional details throughout.