Trump crime crackdown deploys troops in Washington's safest sites

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

August 23, 2025 9:04 AM EDT Updated 4 hours ago


WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Hundreds of National Guard soldiers in military fatigues and combat boots mingled with tourists, posed for selfies, and treated themselves to ice cream from food trucks on Thursday along Washington's National Mall, one of the safest parts of America's capital. On occasion an angry local would hurl verbal abuse at them, but the soldiers simply shrugged and carried on what appeared to be an undemanding assignment.

Outside the National Museum of African American History and Culture, five members of the West Virginia National Guard were standing on the street corner far away from the city's crime hot spots. "It's boring. We're not really doing much," said Sergeant Fox, who declined to give his first name. Fox is among almost 2,000 troops, including 1,200 from six Republican-led states, who are being deployed in Washington as part of an extraordinary militarization inside the Democratic-led city.

The soldiers, some of whom told Reuters they did not get involved in arrests, are officially in Washington to support a federal crackdown on what President Donald Trump calls a crime epidemic. But that depiction appears to run counter to the fact that crime rates overall have shrunk in recent years.

That disconnect, combined with the troop concentration near the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and in view of the U.S. Capitol, highlights criticism by the city's Democratic leaders that this massive deployment is more a show of power by Trump, rather than a serious effort to fight crime. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said this week she did not think the arrival of troops was about tackling crime. She also expressed concern about the presence of "an armed militia in the nation's capital."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-crime-crackdown-deploys-troops-washingtons-safest-sites-2025-08-23/

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It's all for the ongoing "reality show". Waste. Fraud. Abuse.

[AZJonnie]

1. Or he's planning on pulling some shit so nasty that 1M are likely to show up with pitchforks

calling for his head, and he wants to make sure he's got a lot of force nearby. Something like, I dunno ... declaring that brown and black people can't vote anymore, or social security and Medicare are hereby permanently cancelled, something along those lines.

[ananda]

2. Well, I think we all know this isn't about crime in any way at all.

It's about Trump's desire to have a white supremacist fiefdom
where he's surrounded by sycophants.

[twodogsbarking]

3. The areas used to be safe. They are still safe but they used to be safe too.

[LuckyLib]

4. Our tax dollars at work. Thanks to the lunatic

in the White House.

[republianmushroom]

5. trump joining them on patrol

was around the white house grounds ?

[twodogsbarking]

6. Trump has been successful at keeping unicorns and other giant sloths away.

Giant sloths are interesting to me.

[IronLionZion]

7. This whole presidency is for show

to distract from whatever they are hiding in those Epstein files.