Trump’s $223m National Guard crime crackdown has one glaring problem

WorldPolitics
20 Aug 2026 • 7:35 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Trump’s $223m National Guard crime crackdown has one glaring problem

  • Thousands of National Guard troops deployed to Washington, D.C. by Donald Trump have been involved in only 1.3 percent of the city's criminal cases, according to a Reuters report.
  • The deployment cost $223 million by the end of 2025 and is projected to cost an additional $1.4 billion through January 2029.
  • An analysis of court documents found that soldiers mostly responded to whiter and wealthier neighborhoods rather than areas with high murder rates.
  • Out of 217 criminal cases mentioning the Guard, soldiers stopped suspects single-handedly in just 62 instances, often for minor crimes like shoplifting.
  • While the White House claimed the deployment lowered crime, Metropolitan Police Department data showed violent crime actually rose 4 percent from 2025 to 2026.

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