National Guard Troops Say Trump's D.C. Deployment 'Embarrasses' Them: 'Bad Taste in My Mouth'
Key Takeaways
- •NPR quoted three anonymous National Guard members who served in the Washington, D.C., deployment and said they have major concerns about the mission.
- •The deployment began in August 2025 and has become Trump’s largest and longest domestic military deployment.
- •The mission has been extended through the end of Trump’s term, making it a sustained presence with no near-term end in sight.
- •Trump originally sent the Guard after declaring a crime emergency, even though violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low.
- •The service members said the operation could damage the National Guard’s image if long-term presence patrols become its defining role.
National Guard members who served in President Donald Trump's extended deployment in Washington, D.C., are raising concerns about the mission, with one saying he now feels "embarrassed" to have taken part.
In a report published Monday, NPR quoted three guard members who spent months deployed in the nation's capital expressing serious reservations about the operation. The deployment began in August 2025 and has since become Trump's largest and longest domestic military deployment, according to the outlet. It has now been extended through the end of Trump's term, underscoring how a mission framed as a response to public safety has evolved into a sustained presence with few signs of ending soon.
"I will say very frankly that the bad taste that this mission left in my mouth, it actually embarrasses me to be involved in any way," one guard member told NPR.
The three service members spoke anonymously because they remain in the military and are prohibited from speaking publicly without authorization. Each has served for more than a decade, according to NPR.
Trump initially deployed the D.C. National Guard after declaring a "crime emergency," despite violent crime in the city reaching a 30-year low.
"Now, with it being a year, it's hard to feel like that justification holds any water," one guard member said. "It feels like the guard is being exploited in a sense."
Another described his initial reaction as "shock," adding that the deployment "felt like a very authoritarian move that kind of felt uncharacteristic of something you would see in our country."
The guard members also worried that using troops for long-term patrols was damaging the institution's reputation, particularly if a mission meant to be temporary becomes the lasting public face of the National Guard.
"If we continue down this path," one warned, "where this kind of 'presence patrol' mission becomes the new definitive image of the National Guard, it's going to completely rebrand everything that was noble about the National Guard into being mundane at best and threatening at worst."
