WASHINGTON, D.C.– Minnesota Gov.
Tim Walz is pulling his National Guard members from Washington, D.C.early, after they were seen on presence patrols in neighborhoods far from the National Mall, similar to what many of the troops assigned to President Trump's ongoing federal Joint Task Force have been doing in the city for nearly a year.Gov.
Walz sent his guard members to D.C.ahead of the official America 250 celebrations with specific orders that they would be used only to help with those events near the national monuments.Democratic governors from Kentucky, North Carolina, Michigan, Maryland and Hawaii also sent troops with similar orders in recent weeks.
It was the first time troops from Democratic-led states had been sent to Washington since Trump launched his task force.Thousands of armed National Guard troops from nearly two dozen states have been patrolling residential and commercial neighborhoods for months.Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C.
in August of 2025 as part of a federal task force to fight crime and beautify the city, although crime was already trending down.Constitutional and legal experts, as well as activists, have sharply criticized the deployment as an anti-Democratic use of the U.S.
military.The number of troops in the city has doubled to more than 5,100 over the past month, as federal officials announced a "summer surge" of law enforcement help.The deployment now costs upwards of $3 million per day, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.Democratic governors who have sent troops have insisted that their guard members are not part of that law enforcement mission, although the D.C.
Joint Task Force lists them on its public-facing website, albeit with a denotation that they are in town for America 250.All state National Guard troops on that list have been deputized as special police by the U.S.
Marshals Service and issued a firearm, according to the Joint Task Force.All six Democratic-led states h...