The National Guard will stay deployed in the nation’s capital until the end of President Donald Trump’s term in office, according to news reports.
The move comes as part of Trump’s efforts to “beautify” Washington, D.C., which he excoriated before his second term as run down and crime-ridden but now calls “one of the safest cities in the country.”
The deployment will last through Inauguration Day 2029, NPR and The Hill reported Tuesday.
Trump mobilized 800 District of Columbia National Guard members as part of his D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force. That number of guard members quickly grew to more than 2,000 and included troops from several states, and their stay has been extended a few times.
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The Defense Department referred questions to the task force, which referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
The Trump administration, ahead of events for the country’s 250th birthday, announced a “summer surge” of guards in May, bringing the total troop presence in Washington to 5,000 for the summer holiday season.
The presence of the National Guard has received criticism from District residents and Democratic lawmakers who say the deployment is too costly and largely ineffective. The cost of deployment is estimated to be more than $3 million a day, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In September, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to end the guard’s presence.
“Deploying the National Guard to engage in law enforcement is not only unnecessary and unwanted, but it is also dangerous and harmful to the District and its residents,” Schwalb said in a statement at the time. “No American city should have the US military — particularly out-of-state military who are not accountable to the residents and untrained in local law enforcement — policing its streets. It’s D.C. today but could be any other city tomorrow.”
Schwalb’s office and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office declined to comment.
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