Aug. 19 (UPI) — Five Republican governors have deployed National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C., following President Donald Trump’s request to send troops.
“I have approved the deployment of approximately 135 [National Guard] soldiers to Washington, D.C. to assist in President [Donald Trump’s]
mission of restoring safety and peace in our nation’s capital,” announced Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry Monday.
“I’ve approved the deployment of approximately 200 [soldiers] to Washington, D.C., to support President Trump’s effort to return law and order to our nation’s capital,” wrote Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday on X.
“Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it,” he added.
National Guard soldiers from those two states will join troops already sent from Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina as part of Trump’s recent actions to increase and control law enforcement in Washington, D.C.
He put forth an executive order last week titled “Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia,” in which he declared the district’s Metropolitan Police Department under federal control, and dispatched 800 of Washington, D.C.’s National Guard soldiers to patrol the streets.
Around 1,000 troops in total are being contributed by the five states.
“Until [four] days ago, Washington, D.C., was the most unsafe ‘city’ in the United States, and perhaps the World,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account Monday. “Now, in just a short period of time, it is perhaps the safest, and getting better every single hour!”
According to the Metropolitan Police Department’s crime statistics, the level of nearly every categorized offense committed there has dropped since last year, but Trump has alleged the numbers provided by the district are fraudulent.
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