Three Republican-led states announced on August 16, 2025, that they would send hundreds of National Guard members to Washington, D.C., expanding the military presence ordered by President Donald Trump as part of his administration's public-safety operation in the nation's capital.
West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio together pledged roughly 650 to 750 Guard members, depending on the final size of West Virginia's contingent. They were set to join approximately 800 members of the D.C. National Guard whom Trump had already ordered mobilized.
West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio Announce Deployments
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey announced that approximately 300 to 400 West Virginia National Guard personnel would be sent to Washington at the Trump administration's request. The governor's office said the federally funded mission would include personnel, equipment and specialized capabilities.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster separately authorized 200 South Carolina National Guard members to support federal law-enforcement activities. His office said the deployment would operate under Title 32 and would be funded by the federal government. The troops could be recalled if South Carolina needed them for a hurricane or another natural disaster.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine also announced that 150 military police from the Ohio National Guard would travel to Washington. According to the governor's announcement reported at the time, the troops had been requested by Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll and were expected to conduct presence patrols and provide additional security.
Why the Guard Was Sent to Washington
The deployments followed Trump's August 11 declaration of what he called a crime emergency in the District of Columbia. In Executive Order 14333, the president invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and directed the mayor to provide Metropolitan Police Department services for federal purposes during the emergency period allowed by the law.
A separate presidential memorandum directed the Defense Department to mobilize the D.C. National Guard and coordinate with governors for additional Guard forces if needed. The administration said the operation was intended to address violent crime, protect federal property and support public order.
Trump described Washington as facing severe lawlessness and repeatedly portrayed crime in the capital as requiring extraordinary federal intervention. Those characterizations were disputed by Mayor Muriel Bowser and other District officials, who acknowledged serious crime problems but pointed to substantial recent declines in violent offenses.
Crime Had Fallen Sharply Before the Federal Intervention
Official statistics showed that Washington had experienced a major crime surge in 2023, followed by a significant decline. In January 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia reported that overall violent crime fell 35% in 2024 compared with 2023, reaching its lowest level in more than 30 years.
According to the same federal report, homicides declined 32%, robberies fell 39%, armed carjackings dropped 53% and assaults with a dangerous weapon decreased 27% during 2024.
The Metropolitan Police Department likewise said in February 2025 that its data showed a historic decline in violent crime. Those figures did not mean crime had disappeared from Washington, and high-profile violent incidents continued to generate public concern, but they complicated the administration's depiction of a city experiencing an across-the-board increase in violence.
Federal Officers and Guard Members Appear Across the City
During the operation, personnel from multiple federal law-enforcement agencies were deployed alongside National Guard members at prominent locations around Washington, including federal landmarks, transportation hubs and heavily visited parts of the city.
At that stage of the deployment, Guard personnel were primarily assigned to duties such as security, patrol support and assistance to law-enforcement agencies rather than ordinary civilian arrests.
The expanded federal presence drew protests from some residents. Demonstrators gathered in Dupont Circle on August 16 and marched through Washington while chanting "Free DC," objecting to the administration's intervention in local policing and the use of military personnel in the city.
Separate Dispute Over Control of the D.C. Police Department
The Guard deployment occurred alongside a separate legal confrontation over the Metropolitan Police Department.
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an August 14 order that sought to give Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole the role of "Emergency Police Commissioner" and grant him authority over MPD operations. The District government challenged that move in federal court, arguing that the administration had exceeded the authority provided by the Home Rule Act.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed suit on August 15 seeking to block the attempted change in MPD's command structure.
After an emergency hearing before U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, the Justice Department backed away from installing Cole as the city's police chief. MPD Chief Pamela Smith remained in command, while Cole instead served as the attorney general's designee for conveying federal requests to the department. The dispute over the extent of federal authority, including directives involving immigration enforcement, was not fully resolved by that immediate compromise.
Later Legal Challenge to the National Guard Deployment
The military deployment itself later became the subject of separate litigation. On September 4, 2025, the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit challenging the use of both the D.C. National Guard and Guard units sent by other states.
By then, the operation had expanded well beyond the three states involved in the initial August 16 announcements, with more than 2,000 Guard members eventually serving in Washington.
On November 20, 2025, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb granted the District preliminary relief, concluding that the District was likely to succeed on claims that federal officials lacked statutory authority for the crime-deterrence deployment of the D.C. Guard under the circumstances and for calling out-of-state Guard units to Washington in the manner challenged by the city. The court temporarily stayed its own order to allow an appeal.
The Trump administration appealed, and in December 2025 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a stay pending that appeal. The later litigation therefore did not change the fact that, when West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio announced their deployments in August, the administration's Washington operation was actively expanding and its legal boundaries had not yet been resolved by the courts.
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