Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump’s law enforcement crackdown will be armed, the Pentagon said Friday.

The Defense Department didn’t immediately offer any other details about the new development or why it was needed.

The step is an escalation in Trump’s intervention into policing in the nation’s capital and comes as nearly 2,000 National Guard members are stationed in the city, with the arrival this week of hundreds of troops from several Republican-led states.

  • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They’re just playing the odds. If they put enough guns in the streets there’s going to be an incident and any protests will be painted as violent riots for more emergency powers.