Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized National Guard troops to deploy Humvees, military cargo trucks, and patrol boats through Washington, D.C., to support police drug raids — and the same press corps that demanded a locked-down capital after January 6 is now calling it "militarization."
The Daily Beast headlined its story "Pentagon Pete Militarizes Streets of Trump's 'Safe' D.C.," framing the deployment as a contradiction of the president's claims that he cleaned up the capital. USA Today, meanwhile, buried the D.C. deployment entirely, focusing instead on Hegseth's vow to fight impeachment articles filed by Rep. Thomas Massie after GOP midterm losses tied to the Iran war. What neither outlet wants to say: the establishment press supports force when it protects their institutions and opposes it when it protects ordinary Americans.
The facts on the ground are narrower than the Beast's framing suggests. According to a Pentagon memo obtained by Politico, the Oct. 29 authorization lets Guard members drive military vehicles to support police drug operations and provide "perimeter security" on the Anacostia River during raids targeting suspected gang leaders and drug traffickers in Southeast D.C. Guard troops cannot pursue suspects, make arrests, carry bayonets, or operate helicopters. Federal officers must be aboard Guard vessels for any apprehensions. The boats, the memo states, will not be used to surveil U.S. citizens.
That's a support mission, not an occupation. But you wouldn't know it from the Beast, which leaned hard on the image of Humvees rolling through city streets while glossing over the operational constraints.
Trump has repeatedly declared D.C. a "miracle" on crime since Guard troops first arrived in August 2025, posting on Truth Social that the city went from the "most unsafe" to "perhaps the safest." The Cato Institute's October report tells a more mixed story: thefts fell by roughly 44 per week and robberies by about five, but homicides held steady and assaults with a dangerous weapon climbed by about three per week. The Guard has also spent time on mulch detail and hauling more than 500 bags of trash.
The price tag is real. Pentagon officials told Sen. Elizabeth Warren in August the deployment would cost roughly $1.4 billion through 2028, with troop levels peaking near 5,000 personnel from 20 states and Puerto Rico. The mission now runs through Inauguration Day 2029. An internal Guard analysis accidentally emailed to the Washington Post found just 2 percent of social media posts about the deployment were positive.
Meanwhile, Hegseth is fighting for his political survival on a second front. Massie says he'll bring articles of impeachment on Nov. 9, and Rep. Adam Smith told USA Today enough Republicans want Hegseth gone to pass it. Both Trump and Vance have acknowledged the Iran war drove the GOP's midterm losses. Hegseth, the public face of that war, responded by calling Massie a "disgruntled, defeated congressman" and posting a defiant video: "We don't back down and that especially applies now."
After January 6, the same outlets now crying militarization demanded fencing, checkpoints, and thousands of troops around the Capitol — and kept them there for months. The question isn't whether Guard deployments in D.C. are expensive or effective. It's why the press only discovers its civil liberties convictions when the security measures reach neighborhoods that don't have lobbyists.
