WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump’s law enforcement crackdown will be armed, the Pentagon said Friday.
The Defense Department didn’t immediately offer any other details about the new development or why it was needed.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meet with members of the National Guard at Union Station in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (Alexander Drago/Pool via AP)
The step is a escalation in 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 this week of hundreds of troops from several Republican-led states.
The Pentagon and Army said last week that troops would not carry weapons.
The city had been informed about the intent for the National Guard to be armed, a person familiar with the conversations said earlier this week. The person was not authorized to disclose the plans and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
President Donald Trump speaks with members of law enforcement and National Guard soldiers, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
___
AP writer Anna Johnson contributed to this report.
