One Year After Trump Deployed National Guard Troops to Washington, D.C., Statehood Is More Important Than Ever

The ACLU on Sep 7, 2026

Last August, President Donald Trump manufactured a phony "crime emergency" to surge National Guard troops and federal agents into our nation's capital. This deployment came on the heels of similar surges in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon. He even told military leaders that the National Guard was fighting "a war from within," and that American cities could be used as military "training grounds."

While the Trump administration backed down in many of the other cities, the nation's capital has remained filled with nearly 5,000 National Guard troops from more than 15 states. National Guard members have harmed residents such as Anna King, a retired Army captain who received a Purple Heart for her service in the Iraq War. She was sitting on her front patio when three National Guard members walked through her gate, told her that she was detained, and violently restrained her. The Guard members pinned her to the ground, kneeled on her back and handcuffed her tightly, refusing to loosen the handcuffs after she complained. King suffered significant injuries from the incident, particularly in her wrist, which required surgery.

It's also draining taxpayers' wallets. The current cost of the deployment is more than $3 million per day, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This year alone, the cost of having the National Guard in D.C. will total around $600 million.

Now, the Trump administration has declared that this unprecedented domestic deployment will continue into 2029. Despite lawsuits from the ACLU, and oppposition from Washington, D.C., residents and local elected officials, the Trump administration continues to use Washington neighborhoods as test sites for domestic military use and other extreme policies the administration wants to spread around the country. Unlike other jurisdictions that successfully pushed back against this unconstitutional use of the military, Washington, D.C., is not legally recognized as a state.

Without D.C. statehood, the District's elected officials do not control the District's National Guard -- the president does. The presence of thousands of National Guard troops in Washington threatens to normalize this administration's misuse of the country's troops against its own people. National Guard troops should only be deployed for true emergencies, such as natural disasters or a riot at the Capitol that attempts to disrupt the transfer of presidential power. Our country's national guard troops must not be political props.

District residents pay federal and local taxes but are denied a vote in Congress. Residents are faced with National Guard troops on every corner, but more than 30,000 veterans and 11,000 active duty service members who live in Washington are denied voting participation in Congress. Indeed, the ongoing denial of full voting rights, where most of the residents in the District are Black and brown, is an egregious form of ongoing voter suppression happening in our country today.

Just 65 years ago, District residents finally got the right to vote for the president. It's only been 53 years since Congress granted the District limited self-governance, and the right to elect a mayor and local legislative body.

Today, the District's local government has the power to pass and enforce local laws and to pass a budget like any other state. But, unlike a state, Congress has the power to overturn local laws and dictate how it can use its own local tax dollars.

For example, Congress voted to remove nearly $700 million of local tax dollars from Washington's local budget in February. People who live and work in the District were thrown into limbo simply because Congress decided to overturn local tax law. That would be unthinkable in any other state. We cannot continue to let out-of-touch politicians use the people of Washington to test the limits and reach of authoritarian power. Washington is the canary in the democratic coal mine, and there can be no true democracy without D.C. statehood.

That's why it's so important for people living outside of Washington, who actually have representation in Congress, to take on the fight for D.C. statehood as their own. Only then can we ensure that the residents of Washington have their full democratic rights and local freedoms. Tell your member of Congress to support D.C. statehood now.

Monica Hopkins is the executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia. For more than 100 years, the ACLU has worked in courts, legislatures and communities to protect the constitutional rights of all people. With a nationwide network of offices and millions of members and supporters, the ACLU takes on the toughest civil liberties fights in pursuit of liberty and justice for all. To find out more about the ACLU and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.