WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Several thousand protesters marched in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to demand that U.S. President Donald Trump end the deployment of National Guard troops patrolling the capital city’s streets.
With Trump vowing crackdowns in other Democratic-led cities as well, he appeared to threaten Chicago with migrant deportations in a social media post with an image that parodied the 1979 Vietnam war movie “Apocalypse Now.”
Protesters at the “We Are All D.C.” march, including undocumented immigrants and supporters of Palestinian statehood, chanted slogans denouncing Trump and carried posters, some of which read, “Trump must go now,” “Free DC” and “Resist Tyranny.”
“I’m here to protest the occupation of D.C.,” said Alex Laufer. “We’re opposing the authoritarian regime, and we need to get the federal police and the National Guard off our streets.”
Claiming that crime was blighting the city, Trump deployed the troops last month to “re-establish law, order, and public safety.”
Trump also placed the capital district’s Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel, including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to police the city’s streets, moves critics have decried as federal overreach.
Justice Department data showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington, a self-governing federal district under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
The National Guard serves as a militia that answers to the governors of the 50 states except when called into federal service. The D.C. National Guard reports directly to the president.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would also deploy National Guard troops to fight crime in Chicago, an extraordinary effort to militarize the country’s third-largest city that was likely to trigger a legal battle with local officials.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said after Trump spoke that he had learned from reporters that the administration has “gathered ICE agents and military vehicles, and that there are more ICE agents that are on the way.”
“What they’re trying to do in D.C. is what they’re trying to do with other dictatorships,” said Casey, who declined to give his last name. “They’re testing D.C., and if people tolerate it enough, they’re gonna do it to more and more areas. So we have to stop it while we still can.”
More than 2,000 troops, including from six Republican-led states, are patrolling the city. It is unclear when their mission will end, though the Army this week extended orders for the D.C. National Guard through November 30.
WASHINGTON FILES SUIT
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block the troop deployment, arguing that it was unconstitutional and violated multiple federal laws.
But some residents have welcomed the National Guard and called for the troops to be deployed in the less-affluent parts of the city where crime is rampant. The National Guard has been mostly visible in downtown and tourist areas.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has praised Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement personnel in the city, but has said that she hopes that the National Guard’s mission will end soon.
Bowser said there had been a sharp decline in crime, including carjackings, since the surge. The mayor signed an order this week requiring the city to coordinate with federal law enforcement.
Trump was playing golf at his course outside Washington and was not at the White House when protesters marched past on Saturday.
But he appeared to step up pressure on Chicago in a post on his Truth Social platform that said, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” parodying a line from the 1979 movie.
“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the president wrote, referring to his new order to rename the Department of Defense.
The post was accompanied by a seemingly artificial intelligence-generated picture of Trump dressed a military officer character in the film with helicopter gunships and explosions in the background.
(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Mark Porter)
Comments