Washington, DC, is occupied, and with some National Guard members now armed starting Sunday night. Interestingly, Trump has portrayed DC as in decay and used the term “filth” several times, and yet, the National Guard wasn’t armed until now. ABC News estimates that “likely fewer than 50” troops will be armed.
A Joint Task Force spokesman in DC declined to disclose where and when guardsmen would be armed over security concerns.
“The Secretary of Defense has directed JTF-DC service members to carry their assigned service weapon,” the Joint Task Force in DC told CBS News. “Task force personnel operate under the established Rules for the Use of Force, which allow the use of force only as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.”
Via ABC News:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered that National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington for President Trump’s law enforcement crackdown be armed, the Pentagon said Friday.
The Defense Department didn’t offer any other details about the new development or why it was needed.
The step is an escalation in Mr. Trump’s intervention into policing in the nation’s capital and comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members are stationed in the city, with the arrival last week of hundreds from several Republican-led states.
