Washington grapples with a $1.4 billion National Guard deployment extension until 2029

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's been 12 months since President Donald Trump announced a crime emergency in Washington, pledging to make the city "safe and beautiful" and deploying the National Guard. But a mission that seemed temporary has been extended through January 2029. On Aug. 11, 2025, Trump announced that he was launching a federal law enforcement surge in Washington aimed at fighting crime. As of Aug. 4, more than 4,600 military personnel from D.C. and 24 states and territories were still deployed alongside unknown numbers of less visible federal law enforcement officers. Some are expected to be withdrawn toward the end of the summer. Extending the deployment into 2029 will cost about $1.4 billion, according to a Defense Department estimate. "President Trump has transformed D.C. from a crime-ridden city into a safe and beautiful haven for residents and visitors alike," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email. Figures posted to the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia credit the surge with more than 13,000 arrests. Crime, which was falling before the surge began, continues to drop. Metropolitan Police Department statistics show overall crime was down 20% through Aug. 7, compared with the same period in 2025. That includes a 32% drop in homicides, from 97 to 66. But there's a debate over how much of that success is owed to Trump's mission or to yearslong local efforts to chip away at the crime rate. "There's a deep irony that here we are in the capital of the free world, and our president is treating it like a police state," said Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia.