They hang out on the spiral staircases of Union Station, rifles slung over their shoulders, in groups of three or four, under the monumental nave of this station, barely 300 meters from the Capitol, nod, agree to pose for a photo. Tourists love it. Like the food trucks along the National Mall and the cap sellers “Make America Great Again” on Constitution Avenue, National Guard soldiers are now part of Washington’s street furniture.
America has always had a weakness for military uniforms. The National Guard is not the regular army. They are reservists, often teachers, municipal employees or workers during the week, and soldiers on the weekend. Each state has its guard, mobilized when the governor decides: hurricanes in Florida, fires in California, looting after riots.
Except Washington is not a state. In the District of Columbia, the president is in charge. And Donald Trump understood the possibilities this offered him. Last August, arguing a “criminal crisis” in the capital he signed a decree and sent the troops. No need to ask anyone’s opinion. Today, around 2,600 soldiers still patrol the streets of the federal capital, including 700 from the district and the rest from Republican states such as Indiana and Florida. Their mission runs until the end of 2026.
The White House is brandishing numbers. According to official Metropolitan Police statistics, violent crime actually fell by around 29% in 2025 compared to 2024, with a marked decline in homicides (-32%) and armed robberies (-37%). The total number of homicides fell to 127 for the year, compared to 187 a year earlier, after a historic peak in 2023.
The soldiers of the National Guard are simply there, visible, with their weapons and their boy scout smiles
The experts are nuanced. Seasonal decline, police reinforcements, anti-gang operations, everything is intertwined. Whatever. On the ground, the atmosphere has changed. Union Station, long one of the city’s hot spots, seems, it’s true, calmer. “They don’t do anything, and that’s precisely why it works”blurted out a private security agent. This is the whole ambiguity of the system. National Guard soldiers do not carry out identity checks or arrest anyone. They are simply there, visible, with their weapons and their boy scout smiles. Nothing to do with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who avoid showing themselves.
The contrast is striking with what happened elsewhere. In June, Trump sent 4,000 guards to Los Angeles to “restore order” after violent demonstrations against anti-immigration operations. The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, filed a complaint, and a judge ruled in his favor. The soldiers left in December. In Portland and Chicago, same scenario. In the South, things happen differently. In New Orleans, it was the Republican governor himself who called for the National Guard to secure “The Big Easy”, at least until the huge Mardi Gras festivities on February 17.
The city recorded 121 homicides in 2025, a declining figure, while armed robberies fell by almost 30% and fatal shootings by a little more than 20% according to local police. In the streets of the French Vieux Carré, America found a uniform that protects without dividing.
