Overview
- On Wednesday the Justice Department’s Deputy Attorney General, Colin McDonald, told the D.C. Council it has no power to demand that governors remove their National Guard members and called the council’s letters “impotent theatrics.”
- McDonald separately wrote to the governors of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia to thank them and to credit Guard units with saving lives and reducing violence in the city.
- The Guard deployment began after President Trump invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act on Aug. 11, 2025, and now includes thousands of troops from roughly two dozen states that the administration says will remain through January 2029.
- The move has prompted lawsuits, a federal judge’s order to end the deployment that was stayed on appeal, and official cost estimates that project tens of millions per month and multiyear spending into the billions.
- The dispute pits DOJ claims of historic crime reductions and thousands of arrests against local leaders and some analysts who question direct causation, cite rising costs, and warn that a long-term military presence could alter civic life and spur more protests.